People queue at South African Post Office at JubiIee Mall during adjusted lockdown level 4 on 6 July 2021 in Hammanskraal. Photo: Gallo Images/Alet Pretorius
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) said it has upgraded its IT system to assist in identifying fraudsters who illegally claim the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant.
Speaking to eNCA on Sunday, Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi said it was important to curb the rise in Sassa crime. He said criminals will be arrested.
Letsatsi said the system as implemented currently is “very tied up” because most beneficiaries who should get the grant, do get the grant.
“And I think if we follow up on that, those who are in the wrong will get arrested because the intention here is to make sure we do not necessarily give people who don’t deserve this amount of money”, he said
Meanwhile, Sassa has, to date, paid 6 million out of 14 million applicants of the SRD grant.
As of 30 September, Sassa has paid nearly six million Covid-19 grant applications. Some 8.3 million applicants have been approved and over 5.6 million received their grants by September 2021.
Sassa said it managed to expedite payments to verified applicants despite the high volume of applications. It is still in the process of verifying the remaining applications.
About 1.5 million people preferred their monies to be paid via the cardless channel at ATMs.
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Back in August, Sassa general manager Fanie Sethokga responded to the backlog and delay in the payout of the R350 grant, subsequently losing his cool on air when criticised.
Sethokga said the delay in payouts was due to data verification.
For every application received, the information must be verified against the Home Affairs database.
Sethokga said the process had to start afresh for the new month because a beneficiary’s personal circumstances may change.
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Additional reporting by Narissa Subramoney
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