2009-02-26: The ESP replaces the old City of Johannesburg indigent subsidy system
"Siyasizana" – the Expanded Social Package (ESP) is a basket of benefits which the City allocates to poor individuals and the households in which they live, based on their level of poverty", says Councillor Nandi Mayathula-Khoza, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Community Development.
CONTINUING she says," Currently these are subsidies for water, electricity, rates, sanitation and refuse removal. The system also refers citizens who register to a range of other social programmes based on their specific problems and needs".
Registration for this new system is already open, and 30 offices across the City will be able to register people by June 2009. People registering on the system before July will have certain benefits applied to their household account for the meantime, but these benefits will change over to the new system with the start of the new City financial year on July 1st.
The system targets any South African Citizen or legal permanent resident, living in the City of Johannesburg earning less than R3, 366 per month, whether they own a property or not, on condition they can provide:
An official document showing name and South African ID number (if a person does not have an official at present they can make a first application without proof of identity, provided they still know their ID number).
The account number of the property on which they reside, even if they do not own that property (preferably with a municipal account document)
Citizens can also apply as homeless or with no registered address. These citizens will not qualify for property based benefits, but will be eligible for individual benefits such as transport subsidies once these are rolled in the course of 2009 / 2010 financial year.
Councillor Mayathula-Khoza says, "Instead of requiring poor citizens to produce various kinds of documentation, the City will verify a person's circumstances using information held against a person's ID number in the newly developed National Integrated Social Information System (NISIS) being rolled out by the national department of Social Development".
To enable this, a citizen who wishes to register for Siyasizana must declare that they are willing to allow the City of Johannesburg to access information other government departments hold about them in order to confirm the details they have given about their personal situation.
Any citizen that is found to have made a false declaration will be prosecuted and blacklisted from applying for Siyasizana again. Fingerprints will be taken as a secure form of identification, and will be a citizen's ongoing way of identifying themselves to the system.
Registration is already available at the following COJ Customer Service Centres:
Jabulani Civic Centre, Koma Road, Soweto
Meadowlands, Zone 2 393 Porton 7, Hekpoort Circle,
Rabbie Ridge, Ext 4&5, Corner Koraan and Kraal Street
Lenasia Civic Centre, Corner Rose Avenue and Eland Street
Thuso House, 61 Jorrissen Street Braamfontein
From March 10th, 2009, registration will also be available at the following Customer Service Centres:
Alex Sancopano
Diepsloot
Orange Farm
Ivory Park 1
Eldorado Park
A schedule of additional registration sites throughout the City will be announced by the end of March 2009.
Individuals who register now will have the following benefits applied to the address they declare until July 2009.
10kl total free basic water
100 kw/h free basic electricity
If the registering person is also the owner of the property, they will receive a 100% rebate on rates, sanitation and refuse removal.
From 1st July 2009, Citizens will qualify for one of three different levels of benefits, depending on how high they score on the City's poverty index.
These three different levels of help are known as Band 1, Band 2, and Band 3. The Siyasizana system will work out a person's poverty score (and which band they qualify for) based mainly on the information a person gives about themselves and those who depend on them financially, as well as on how deprived the area they live in is. The three bands work as follows:
Band 1 – is the lowest level of subsidy, aimed at helping those on the borderline of poverty.
Band 2 – is the middle level of subsidy, aimed at those who earn some formal income but whose earnings fall below the survival level defined by the poverty index (see question ? below)
Band 3 – is the highest level of subsidy, aimed at those with no formal income living in the most deprived circumstances.
The amount of subsidies a household gets will be based on the number of people that have declared the household's account as their address when they register and their individual level of poverty. The subsidies for everyone who qualifies in the household are added together and the total is taken off the household's bill, up to a capped amount. The maximum amount of subsidy is higher for households whose members have very high scores on the City's poverty index.
The amount of subsidy a person in each band will receive for water, electricity, rates, sanitation, refuse removal and transport is currently being finalised through the city's tariff process and revision of the COJ rates policy.
Issued on behalf of:
Councillor Nandi Mayathula-Khoza
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Community Development
