PARENTS SPEND NIGHT AT POLICE STATION OVER OVC GRANT

MBABANE – Some parents and guardians who had gone to register their children for the OVC grant at the Social Welfare Offices in different parts of the country, were subjected to long queues and ended up sleeping outside Hluthi Police Station.

The parents who were found outside the police station on Tuesday night narrated that the reason that led them to that situation was because they wanted to be the first in the queue to register for the grants for their children. The parents said clearly, there were many of them who needed the assistance, hence the long queues. One parent said on Tuesday, she arrived at the said offices at around 5am but she could not get help, hence she decided to sleep at the cop shop in order to be the first in line the following day, which was yesterday. The parent said since there were many of them, they decided that the only place they felt safe at was at the Hluthi Police Station.  One of the parents, Nomathemba Mabuza, lamented that the police officers at the said police station did not allow them to sleep inside the station’s reception area but left them outside.

Mabuza said such was painful because it was not safe for them to sleep outside and they were also subjected to the cold at night as Hluthi is in the Highveld, which is cold. She said in as much as it was summer, the night temperatures often dropped. Another parent from Nsingizini said another factor that pushed them to sleep at the police station was that after seeing that they could not get help at the Social Welfare Offices, they could not go back to their homes since it was too far. She said it was costly for them to do many trips. She also lamented that there was scarcity of public transport in their area such that even the available ones started operating at 7am and reached Hluthi after 8am, which was quite late for them.

Queues

The long queues were not only experienced at Hluthi, but even in other towns like Manzini, where a large number of parents were also found waiting to be attended to. Various economic factors have led to the parents seeking government’s assistance in paying school fees for their children, through the OVC fund. The fund is administered by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM). It was gathered that on Tuesday, when schools opened, the parents went to register their children in their respective schools, where head teachers asked them who would pay the fees. The parents informed the head teachers about their plight and the latter gave them letters to submit to the Department of Social Welfare.  According to the parents, they would then be required to go and seek another letter from their imiphakatsi, which would confirm the vulnerability of the child in question. From there, the parents are expected to depose to an affidavit, confirming the vulnerability of the child or children, then one would submit all these documents to the nearest Social Welfare Offices.

Director of Social Welfare in the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office Mcusi Shongwe, said the long queues in their different offices in the regions were regrettable. He noted that as an office, they were aware of the long queues which were mainly of parents who had come to apply for the OVC grants. He said this was the time the queues were expected to be long as parents would come for the said grants. Shongwe said they were not happy about the situation but it was beyond their control as they were currently faced with a shortage of staff or social workers. He said such was caused by the current hiring freeze.

He noted that in some places like Hluthi, there was only one social worker who was responsible for attending to the parents and screened their applications. Shongwe said besides the OVC grant applications, the officer was also expected to attend to other social issues like the new elderly and disability grant applications, gender-based violence (GBV) cases and many other social issues. “The officers are overstretched,” said Shongwe.

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