‘We have been taxed all of our lives’: SASSA pensioner wants her grant doubled

Phiwe Mlokothi spent her working life paying tax. Now retired and living in the Western Cape, she says the state owes pensioners like her far more than the SASSA Older Persons’ Grant currently pays.

Mlokothi shared her views in The South African’s SASSA grant survey. Her message to the government was blunt.

“The older people’s grant must be raised to at least R5500 as we have been taxed all of our lives,” she said. “We are paying some other taxes even now.”

Pensioners still feel the taxman’s reach

Retirement has not ended Mlokothi’s tax contributions. Like every South African, she pays VAT on almost everything she buys. For a pensioner whose grant goes almost entirely on groceries, that tax bites hard.

Mlokothi receives her grant directly into her First National Bank account and describes the payment process as straightforward. She rates SASSA’s communication as adequate. Her complaint does not concern how SASSA operates. It concerns how little the grant provides.

Six dependants, one grant

Mlokothi owns her home, but ownership does not put food on the table. Six or more people depend on her income. She spends her grant mainly on food and groceries, yet by month-end nothing remains.

She names the cost of living and rising food prices as her biggest financial concern.

Mlokothi has received the grant for three years. She has never applied for additional government support because she did not know what else was available.

A social contract under strain

Mlokothi’s argument rests on fairness. South Africans pay income tax for decades, partly expecting the state to support them in old age. When the grant cannot feed a household, pensioners like her feel that bargain has broken down.

Her proposed R5 500 would more than double the current grant. Whether National Treasury could afford such an increase remains a separate debate. For Mlokothi, the question is simpler: after a lifetime of contributions, she wants a pension that lasts the month.

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