The African National Congress (ANC) has acknowledged that the money received by more than 18 million South African beneficiaries in the form of social grants, is simply not enough.
The ANC's Recognition of the Small Grant Values
ANC Treasurer General, Gwen Ramokgopa, has admitted that the country’s social grant systems do not bridge all gaps, as unemployment and poverty persist.
In its 2019 election manifesto, the governing party vowed to improve access to social grants in a bid to strengthen social security for the most vulnerable. However, speaking at the party’s manifesto review in Eastern Cape on 16 September 2023, Ramokgopa told supporters that the ANC had "made strides in addressing the country’s socio-economic issues."
The country's high cost of living stretches beyond the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant beneficiaries receive each month. But, on the plus side, less citizens are "going to bed hungry."
We know that the grants are not enough, but the grants reduce the possibility of anyone in South Africa sleeping hungry.
Rampokgopa also said the "public purse" must be safeguarded to prevent the misappropriation of funds that were earmarked for social programmes.
We have also committed and have strengthened the security cluster to follow up on any corruption because corruption steals from ordinary people.
Millions of people rely on social grants, distributed by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), including children, the elderly and those with disabilities.
Calls to Increase the SRD Grant Have Been Frequent
Beneficiaries, lobbyists, organisations and even members of Parliament have called for the SRD grant to be increased from R350 every month, to R663 (which is at least where the monthly Food Poverty Line rests), and potentially made permanent in the form of a Basic Income Grant (BIG).
The Department of Social Development (DSD) has been investigating ways it could introduce basic income support for vulnerable adults, and finally, the Department now believes that it is possible to implement a Basic Income Grant in a way that is financially sustainable and does not comprise economic growth.
During the 2023 State of the Nation Address (SONA), which took place in February this year, President Cyril Ramphosa announced that work was underway to develop a mechanism for a targeted Basic Income Support (BIS) for the most vulnerable citizens.
Owing to the rising cost of living, and with the view to cushion the most vulnerable among South Africans from the effects of known and novel risks alike, the Social Development portfolio is in the process of devising a Basic Income Support.
Major Sacrifices Are Required For The Extension of the SRD Grant
However, recent reports suggest that extending the grant beyond March 2024 would require some major sacrifices and changes.
According to media reports, the National Treasury told President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ministers that the government faces unprecedented revenue and spending pressures.
The financial pressure is a result of a challenging economic position because of extensive load-shedding, sticky inflation, and poor growth. Treasury noted that if the government wanted to keep the R350 SRD grant as is, it will only be able to afford it by finding other ways to cut costs.
Delays in SASSA Grant Payments Contributes to Challenges Regarding Financial Survival
The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) often experiences delays when it comes to distributing grant monies to beneficiaries on time.
Many beneficiaries are solely reliant on the money they receive monthly from the Agency; late payments or barriers to collecting their money leaves them stranded and without any money for over a week.
Recently, SASSA's systems experienced a technical glitch, which prevented thousands of beneficiaries (particularly recipients of the Older Person's grant and Disability grant) from accessing their September grant money they were told was ready for collection.
The technical glitch led to recipients receiving “transaction incomplete errors” because of the system’s communication timeouts. The situation has since been resolved, but not everyone has been paid.
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) went on to instruct unpaid grant beneficiaries to collect their Older Person's and Disability grants on Friday, 8 September 2023.
The Reason Behind the Glitch
Last week, Communications Minister, Mondli Gungubele, said the new payment switch meant money from failed transactions were erroneously deducted from beneficiaries' accounts, thus affecting 600,000 people.
We acknowledge the financial and logistical inconvenience that the system failure has caused to the millions of our people who depend solely on social grants for survival.
We profusely apologise to those affected as we are aware of the grave inconvenience this has caused. We want to assure the public that government is committed to continuously improving our systems to provide a reliable service.
During the occurrence of technical challenges, grant funds were not automatically reserved in the bank accounts of individuals attempting withdrawals. To rectify this, Postbank has initiated the process of manually reversing these funds into the bank accounts of affected grant beneficiaries.
However, the manual reversal of grant funds is a timely process and therefore some grant beneficiaries have not yet received their grant money, The reversal process commenced last week and remains ongoing.
According to Postbank around 90% of the 600,000 people have been paid their grants.
