The department of social development will this year finalise the establishment of an inspectorate for social assistance to investigate fraud and corruption in the Social Security Agency of SA (Sassa), social development minister Sisisi Tolashe says.
Sassa distributes a range of grants to about 28-million beneficiaries at a cost of R266bn this fiscal year.
Reports of fraud have been swirling about the agency and have been highlighted by reports of the auditor-general. Two first-year computer science students at Stellenbosch University recently uncovered widespread fraud and systemic weaknesses in Sassa’s grant system.
Tolashe said in parliament on Thursday during a DA-initiated mini-plenary debate on fraud and corruption at Sassa and the entity’s failure to protect social grants from this that the inspectorate would be a critical institution to strengthen capacity to conduct investigations, collaborate with other law enforcement agencies and speed up prosecutions.
Tolashe said Sassa was strengthening its antifraud and anticorruption implementation plan, which was built on its fraud prevention strategy.
The strategy addressed control deficiencies and included financial disclosure, lifestyle reviews and the implementation of a biometric verification system for grant beneficiaries to mitigate the risk of grant fraud.
The minister said investments had already been made in advanced technologies and data analytics to detect fraudulent activities.
DA MP Alexandra Abrahams called for urgent reforms at Sassa to address fraud, corruption and mismanagement.
She emphasised that funding and capacitation of the independent inspectorate for social assistance had to be prioritised. The inspectorate is provided for in the Social Assistance Act, but Abrahams noted it still had no real capacity.
“Instead, Sassa established an internal fraud investigation capacity, through their internal fraud management and compliance unit (FMCU). Herein lies the problem and conflict. Sassa cannot audit itself. This fosters an environment ripe for fraud and corruption.
Abrahams noted that by Sassa’s own admission “the FMCU [became] structurally unsuited to address the persistent leakage and concerted attacks on the social grants system, sometimes by highly sophisticated crime syndicates targeting the large social grants budget”.
Abrahams called for the resignation of the Sassa CEO Busisiwe Memela-Khambula, who she said should be held accountable for the fraud and corruption and the Special Investigating Unit should investigate.
A commission of inquiry should also be established to probe the social relief of distress (SRD) grant system, which distributes R370 a month to about 7.5-million beneficiaries.
IT security, payment and biometric verification systems needed to be strengthened, Abrahams said.
“Sassa is synonymous with fraud, corruption, mismanagement, snaking long queues, pensioners sleeping over to secure their spot in the queue for the following day, and tragically, pensioners dying in queues. Visiting a Sassa office is certainly not a pleasant experience, but one made out of sheer desperation,” Abrahams said.
She cited a number of the agency’s failures including paying deceased beneficiaries and government employees, system glitches that led beneficiaries to either receive double payment, or no payment at all, inefficiencies at the SA Post Office and Post Bank, which assist in distributing grants, confusion over gold cards, black cards and card expiry dates and dysfunctional online services.
Another frequent problem was reports of people having an active SRD grant in their name and against their ID number when they did not apply for it. This meant they were locked out of the grant despite being eligible.
The DA’s Bridget Mahlangu, who chairs the social development committee, said problems of fraud and corruption in Sassa had been raised for a long time. Year after year the auditor-general highlighted the agency’s poor management, its failure to prevent irregular expenditure, its repeated payment of grants to illegible beneficiaries, inadequate internal controls and low consequence management.
UDM MP Nqabayomzi Kwankwa referred to the recovery of more than R148m grant payments to ineligible beneficiaries reported by the auditor-general. Government employees were also receiving them.
DA MP Jan de Villiers also highlighted the finding by the auditor-general in the 2023/24 financial year that nearly 16,000 Sassa grant beneficiaries were directors of companies who had successfully been awarded contracts by the state and received more than R231m in grant payments in 2023/24. Over 5,000 dead individuals received R15m in grants in the same year.
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