Johnathan Paoli
THE DA has officially called for investigations into those implicated in the alleged rigging of the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) social grant payment system.
This followed a claim that thousands of undue payments continued to be made, as the social security agency’s outdated databases went unchecked.
Minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu previously revealed to Parliament that SASSA paid out R140 million to more than 70,000 deceased beneficiaries over the past three financial years, and that thousands of public servants had been illegally cashing in on the Covid-19 social relief of distress grants.
DA Shadow Minister of Social Development Bridget Masango said a fresh audit on the databases is needed, calling for harsher sanctions against those found wanting.
“Despite violations amounting to 40,000, the public service system has only instituted 42 disciplinary proceedings against implicated public servants for improper behaviour. This is just a drop in the ocean considering the scale of the fraud that took place.”
Masango said SASSA’s payout system remained vulnerable and that revelations of substantial payments to deceased individuals and undeserving beneficiaries highlighted a severe compromise in the integrity of the social grant recipient databases, putting an undue burden on the South African taxpayer.
“The purpose of the independent audit will be to review the integrity of the data, weed out undeserving recipients and institute processes to recoup money that has been irregularly disbursed,” Masango said.
SASSA has claimed that the payment of grants to deceased persons was a result of a failure by families to report the deaths of their loved ones to the Home Affairs Department and denied the claims of corruption leveled by the DA against the department.
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