Cape Town Group Surprises Pensioners Waiting in Cold Outside SASSA
- Members of NOAH’s Athlone Knitwits brought blankets to pensioners waiting in the cold outside a SASSA office in Cape Town
- The group also visited a bedridden 99-year-old senior at her home to celebrate her birthday with a blanket and well-wishes
- NOAH, a registered NPO founded in 1981, has been working to support the dignity and wellbeing of South Africa’s elderly
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Source: Facebook
A Cape Town community group stepped up for the city’s elderly in a quiet but powerful act of kindness. Members of NOAH’s Athlone Knitwits took blankets to pensioners queuing outside the SASSA office near Athlone Shoprite on 25 August 2026, standing with them through the cold rather than leaving them to endure it alone.
For many older South Africans, the early morning SASSA queue is a familiar hardship. People travel long distances, often in winter conditions, to collect pensions, follow up on grants or submit applications. It is a routine that asks a great deal of those who can least afford the physical strain.
The Knitwits arrived without ceremony. They simply handed out blankets where they were needed and moved on.
A 99-year-old birthday celebrated with love
The group’s care extended beyond the queue. One of NOAH’s own senior members, now bedridden, turned 99 years old last Thursday. Members visited her at home and presented her with a blanket to mark the occasion.
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“Ninety-nine years of life and still being seen, still being celebrated and still being wrapped in love,” NOAH said of the moment.
It was a small gesture that carried enormous weight. For someone at that stage of life, being remembered and honoured by their community speaks to exactly the kind of dignity NOAH has built its work around.
Source: Facebook
Who NOAH is and what it stands for
NOAH was founded in 1981 and is a registered non-profit and public benefit organisation based in Cape Town. Its model is built around what it describes as a strengths-based approach, offering a range of services designed to help older people live actively, healthily and as independently as possible.
The organisation works to ensure that South Africa’s elders have their basic needs met while maintaining a sense of purpose and belonging, both within their own families and in the broader community.
The Athlone Knitwits, as one of NOAH’s community groups, embody that mission in a hands-on way, turning wool and time into something far greater than a product.
3 more stories involving SASSA
- A KwaZulu-Natal pensioner had her Old-Age Grant withheld without warning after SASSA’s biometric system failed to capture her fingerprints twice.
- Nearly 80,000 SASSA grant beneficiaries still need to migrate from gold cards to black cards before the 31 August 2026 deadline.
- Social Development Minister Dina Pule visited two SASSA offices in the Western Cape to assess payment delays and overcrowding firsthand.
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Source: Briefly News
