Mozambique: Thousands of senior citizens starving for lack of grants

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Mozambique: Thousands of senior citizens starving for lack of grants

12:10 CAT | 18 Feb 2020

Manica seniors are experiencing difficult times [File photo: DW]Photo: DW

In Manica, more than 24,000 senior citizens who usually benefit from basic social grants have not been paid for about four months. The lack of assistance has seen many of them go hungry.

The National Institute of Social Action (INAS) claims to have no money to pay senior beneficiaries of the basic social subsidy programme in Manica province, central Mozambique. The provincial director of Gender, Children and Social Action, Lurdes Daniel, did not wish to record an interview, but told DW Africa that the absence of payments stems from the budget deficit, which only allowed payments until October 2019.

There are exactly 24,074 elderly people receiving basic social benefits in Manica. They reside in eight districts – Chimoio, Mossurize, Machaze, Gondola, Sussundenga, Macate, Vanduzi and Manica.

A group of senior citizens, who preferred to remain anonymous, told DW Africa that they depend on these grants to live and described the difficulties they faced from its absence.

Since November, these elderly people have survived with the support of individuals only. The situation drives many to seek help from strangers on the city’s streets, going from store to store asking for alms in order to put food on the table.

“We are feeling really bad”

“There are four months without subsidies now, starting in November, December, January and February. We are feeling very bad, because we have nothing to eat and we have no other way to survive,” programme beneficiaries say, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals. If there are to be no more grants, the elderly ask that they be told. “It is better that they inform us so that we can know and give up our [unfounded] hopes,” they say.

“And with this rainy season, the houses are collapsing and we have nothing to do. The state has promised to help us, but it is not helping. Maybe it has already forgotten us,” one of the interviewees said.

Another interviewee, who also did not identify himself for fear of reprisals, said that his children were going without learning materials because the subsidy wasn’t being paid. “Hope is the last thing to die. We can do nothing because our ideas have already finished. What we have left is to ask for help in stores and people in good faith. And gradually we wait with serenity and calm,” he said.

The Secretary of State for Manica, Edson da Graça Macuácua, paid INAS a working visit last week, and said he hoped that the problem would be resolved soon.

“We are working on this. We are talking about reviewing procedures to ensure that there is the necessary regularity. And when there is no regularity, clarification is necessary,” he said.

The Provincial Secretary of State promises to continue to “ensure that citizens in need of this support from the state will receive subsidies and other support that the state channels [to them] with the necessary speed”.

Source: Deutsche Welle