{"id":42106,"date":"2013-05-17T08:17:04","date_gmt":"2013-05-17T06:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=42106"},"modified":"2013-05-17T08:17:14","modified_gmt":"2013-05-17T06:17:14","slug":"western-cape-government-sweet-service-and-sassa-sour-service-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/western-cape-government-sweet-service-and-sassa-sour-service-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Cape Government Sweet Service and SASSA Sour Service Awards!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Sweet Service Award<\/strong> goes to the Western Cape Government, and its Minister of Finance, Economic Development, and Tourism, Alan Winde, for promising to relook the new provincial Liquor Act, and how the red tape in its implementation can be reduced. Particularly welcome is the promise that ‘we have agreed to review the section of the Act which requires citizens to request approval to store more than 150 litres of liquor on a premises. This section was originally inserted to give police the power to prosecute illegal outlet owners who claim that the liquor on their premises is for private use’, <\/em>according to a media statement which the Minister issued yesterday. While the exact nature of the ‘review’ i<\/em>s not clear, it would appear that it may be removed!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Sour Service Award<\/strong> goes to SASSA (South African Social Security Agency), and is nominated by Rob Harris: “To SASSA: not to them in principle for what they do, but for 2 things (1) the rollout of the new SASSA chip ‘n pin card that some hidden snags – the biggest being that any funds on a card will be blocked from the 20th till the end of each month – according to their service provider, CPS ( a division of Grindrod Bank) this is so they can reconcile the SASSA payments with the CPS. One would have thought that with sophisticated banking systems and a verified database of grant recipients, this would be the same as a debit order run on the last day of the month and not needing 10 days to implement and (2) for the unacceptable delays in holding on for a telephone call to be answered. My call took 45 minutes before someone answered – when they did eventually speak to me they were efficient, polite and knowledgeable … but if I hadn’t been using a landline, and didn’t have the time what then? I have spoken to many people who have had all their airtime drained to zero while they held on for the next available operator! With so many people on the SASSA system who are eligible to receive the various grants, you would have thought the least they could have done was be more transparent about the time funds are inaccessible, also have a better communication system, and chosen a service provider that was better organised. It would be interesting to hear what Grindrod’s Chairman has to say, because if you CAN get through to any department of Grindrod, you get the stock answer – phone the “helpline” which is in itself, an oxymoron!’<\/em><\/p>\n

The <\/span>WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards<\/strong> are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.\u00a0 Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at <\/span>info@whalecottage.com<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the <\/span>WhaleTales <\/strong>newsletters on the <\/span>www.whalecottage.com<\/a> website.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sweet Service Award goes to the Western Cape Government, and its Minister of Finance, Economic Development, and Tourism, Alan Winde, for promising to relook the new provincial Liquor Act, and how the red tape in its implementation can be reduced. Particularly welcome is the promise that ‘we have agreed to review the section of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3,124,248,516,21,19],"tags":[1317,32378,19077,19078,1992,14034,19075,19076,3141,32373,1771],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t