The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) has dismissed reports that it is planning to cancel the social grants of beneficiaries.
The agency’s comments come as it is currently undertaking to ascertain the eligibility of identified beneficiaries suspected of having additional income that was not disclosed.
Speaking on YouFM Newshour, SASSA spokesperson Andile Tshona, said the grants are delayed momentarily until a ‘suspected’ beneficiary has successfully completed the review process.
These comes after the agency requested about 210 000 suspected beneficiaries to verify their accounts before payment was made.
“The way it has been communicated out there is wrong, like we just woke up and suspended social grants, which is not the case. This has been happening from May, June, as well as July and this is an ongoing process where within that number of 210 000, it affected all types of grants. It is just that this month it affected mainly the old grants, and last month it was the child support grant. This is an ongoing process, and at no point were the grants suspended. We just delay the payment, you come, verify yourself and your money is then released,” said Tshona.
He however acknowledged that the process might have scared grant beneficiaries and sent them on a panic mode.
“We do understand and appreciate the panic, and it is not our nature or mandate to cause panic. The only delays that might occur is of the 210 000 people whom we must still verify their details. We take a bit at a time until we have verified all the affected beneficiaries,” explained Tshona.
In addition, Tshona highlighted that the agency couldn’t request all ‘suspected beneficiaries’ to avail themselves at their offices at once, due to logistical challenges.
“Our SASSSA local offices are always full, and if we were to call all the beneficiaries once, it’s going to create chaos, thus we’re dealing with this gradually. It is necessary for us to embark on this process, because at SASSA, as much as we’re dealing with the poorest of the poor, we’re also dealing with the taxpayers’ money. So, we want to ensure that this money that we’ve been mandated to manage, it gets disbursed to the right and eligible beneficiaries. It is not a punitive measure to deliberately exclude any deserving beneficiary. We want all the deserving beneficiaries to receive what is they’re right to receive,” remarked the spokesperson.
Furthermore, Tshona said the verification process will also help the agency to root out fraudulent activities, whether they’re internal or external.
“As we do this process, we’re also looking internally at SASSA. We’re saying that if any of our officials are found to be working with the outside world to defraud the system, they’re going to face the full might of the law. If you’re found to have been working while receiving the grant, we’re going to check how long have you been working while receiving the grant, you’ll have to pay back that money. We’re going to calculate that amount of grant depending on the individual. Then we’re obliged in terms of our Social Assistance Act, that is a fraudulent activity, meaning that the person must pay back the money,” warned Tshona.
