Altogether R12.6m has been recovered from government employees who illegally claimed social grants meant for needy and vulnerable people, social development minister Lindiwe Zulu has told parliament.
The various social grants cater for the aged, child support, foster care and disability, and R250bn was budgeted to pay grants to about 18.6-million beneficiaries in 2022/2023.
In a written reply to a question by DA MP Mimmy Gondwe, Zulu said altogether 165,297 public servants were found to have received social grants, excluding the R350 social relief of distress grant meant to help those made destitute by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Grants to these 165,297 public servants were suspended in September 2021 as it was suspected they did not qualify for the grants. Zulu said all 165,297 cases were subjected to a review process, as required by the Social Assistance Act.
Altogether 63,212 public servants were found to qualify for the grants after they completed the review process and 3,268 were found not to qualify. The grant review process is not yet finalised and 98,817 beneficiaries must still be reviewed.
“The process to determine eligibility is an intensive manual process,” Zulu said. “The teams are still engaging the public servants as they come forward to complete the review process. All those found to have received a grant to which they were not entitled will repay the amount and also face disciplinary action through their respective departments.
“In following consequence management procedures, due processes must be followed. The affected public servants have completed debt acknowledgment forms to enable Sassa (SA Social Security Agency) to recover the debt. This information has been shared with each province and affected government departments for them to be able to take appropriate action. To date, Sassa has not received any reports of the outcomes of these processes,” Zulu said.
News24 reported in December that Zulu said in a written reply to a parliamentary question by IFP MP Liezl van der Merwe that 5,812 government employees received the R350 social relief of distress grant fraudulently to the value of R5.8m. Grants beneficiaries must be unemployed.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his weekly newsletter in September last year that about 17,000 national and provincial government employees submitted applications for R350 social relief of distress grants to top up their salaries with money meant for the poor.
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