The government has rolled out the social security fund once again to come to the aid of the SPPF. The Director of the Social Security Fund has appeared on television to announce that income support will increase by R200 from R400. She did not, however, say why now and why R200. This is the style of the SPPF. Take what we give you and shut up. This time it is a token and dismal effort to come to the rescue of its image rather than winning an election for the SPPF.
Most people do not know that income support was only R400 per month. In the last two years almost everyone who applied for income support would have been offered merely R500 per month for a period of six months, especially in the months leading up the presidential and National Assembly elections.
The money is generally disbursed three months after the application is lodged. Each applicant has to be vetted by the local agent of the SPPF in the district called the DA, who is employed and paid a salary of R4000 a month by the government. He or she takes orders directly from Maison du Peuple (headquarters of the SPPF) via the Minister responsible for local government. During election time, the DA would visit every household offering money, and ensuring the loyalty of the household to the SPPF. The DA would evaluate ones suitability for income support not on ones needs, based on ones propensity to vote for JJ or the SPPF candidate. Only recently, when the 5-star Maia hotel was recruiting artisans and other workers, all applicants were told that their names were being forwarded to the DA of Anse Boileau for vetting by officials at Maison du People as to their suitability for employment. Denial of employment usually comes in the form of a letter saying that security clearance had not been obtained.
The state of the Social Security Fund (SSF) today is a far cry from what it was in 1998 it seems, even though figures are not available to the public. That year, especially in the month leading up to the general elections, the Social Security Fund dished out SR 20,000,000 by van loads by the side of the roads to buy votes for the SPPF. It stopped a week before polling day, only because the election observers from the Commonwealth caught onto the act. At that time, the Social Security Fund was run by Francis Chang Leng who, soon after, was promoted to run the Ministry of Finance as well as the Central Bank. Today, Chang Leng is busy borrowing money right left and centre to save JJ’s regime (or to dig a bigger hole for the people of Seychelles), as governor of the so-called “Independent” Central Bank.
No one knows what the income of the SSF is, and how much they spend on what. The figures are a closely guarded state secret. Whenever this newspaper has made enquiries to obtain its financial statements, the management has claimed that it could not give one unless the Minister of Finance gave his approval, and that has never happened, despite a constitutional provision under the Seychellois Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms which says “The State recognises the right of access by the public to information held by a public authority performing a governmental function.” We are hoping for better luck this year now that President Michel has declared that this would be the year that we should all recognise how beautiful and sacrosanct our Constitution is.