MTBPS 2024: National Treasury will impose conditions on institutions like the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), as it pertains to crosschecks on databases, to improve the validity of social grant payments.
This was revealed by a Treasury official, during a media briefing ahead of the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) address in the National Assembly.
Today, finance minister Enoch Godongwana delivered the first MTBPS of the seventh administration under the Government of National Unity.
Prior to the address, Treasury hosted a media briefing with the minister, his two deputies, SARS commissioner, SARB governor and other principals within the department.
Responding to question on unlawful grant recipients, a Treasury official said the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant is the first that is fully data-driven.
“A whole generation of new reforms is needed to strengthen those links, big data links between databases. The Treasury is going to be putting quite a lot more conditions and workings in this area to improve the use of big data right across government, linking databases.
“One of those is likely to be a lot more use of biometrics…to make sure the person who says they are an individual is in fact that individual. This doesn’t just link to SASSA, but the banking industry, RICA and cellphones, and a whole lot of other databases.”
An entity of the Department of Social Development (DSD), SASSA has been in the spotlight in recent weeks, amid allegations of fraud and unlawful payments of its SRD grants.
Two first-year students from Stellenbosch University reportedly identified weaknesses in SASSA’s SRD grant payment system and fraud with the application process.
The system, according to the report, showed the students had already applied for and received the grant, even though they had not applied nor received any payments.
As a result, the scholars were invited to present their findings before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Social Development, as well as leadership of SASSA and the DSD.
Social development minister Nokuzola Tolashe conceded the allegations made by the students were extremely concerning, ordering a probe that will includecyber security experts and law enforcement agencies.
However, she stated that neither SASSA nor the DSD have been favoured with any of the research undertaken by the students, nor have they accepted the several invitations from SASSA to present their findings.
The DSD, through its agency SASSA, manages an annual budget of R266 billion, with the SRD grant making up R35 billion of the total allocation, covering an average of eight million working-age adults each month.
Initially introduced in 2020 to cushion qualifying citizens against the financial pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the SRD grant has continued as part of government’s social grants programme. The grant, previously R350, increased to R370 as of April, representing a 5.7% increase.
Delivering the MTBPS, Godongwana stressed that government’s efforts to build a capable, ethical and developmental government will harness digital infrastructure.
Among these interventions is the deployment of critical systems in the provision of service delivery in focus areas. These include digitising and simplifying the application and disbursement process for social grants, rolling out digital identification documents, building a centralised and accessible website for all government services, and digitising health records management for the rollout of National Health Insurance.
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