Residents of Cloetesville and Ida’s Valley who have had to travel to Klapmuts and Franschhoek for their social benefits will soon be able to be serviced in Khayamandi.
Although not all locals are happy with the change of venue, the Stellenbosch Municipality is happy the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) services will be closer to home for many.
In the past, Sassa officials were stationed at the Eikestad Hall in Cloetesville, but services were suspended in 2024 as a result of the ongoing gang violence in the area.
The municipality and Sassa have an existing memorandum of understanding (MOU) in place for services at the Klapmuts Multipurpose Centre, the Franschhoek Community Hall and the Eikestad Hall. The Cloetesville services will now be moved to the Khayamandi Corridor Conference Centre.
As part of the move to Khayamandi Sassa requested a reducation in its daily rent. The daily rental tariff at the conference centre is R2 500 per day.
Sassa asked for R1 908 reduction in daily rent to R592, in line with the cost of Eikestad Hall. This amendment to the MOU was approved by council in June.
Shivani Wahab, director of marketing and communications for Sassa, says no services are currently being provided in Khayamandi after a security-risk assessment of The Corridor was made to ascertain whether the facility was viable.
“The Corridor is managed by a different unit at Stellenbosch Municipality, namely Local Economic Development & Tourism,” she says. “Based on this, the municipality indicated a separate MOU needed to be drafted with Sassa. Feedback was requested by the municipality in writing.”
Wahab adds that no feedback has been received, but any changes would be communicated to the public in due course. The current MOU between the two parties is valid until 31 March 2026.
