Sassa spokesperson, Paseka Letsatsi, stated that the 10 applicants who received payment were part of SASSA's plan to test the payment process. 

He also apologised for the slow progress that SASSA has been making, as the agency has been trying to verify the information of all of those who have applied.  

"We received just under five million applications for this new grant and we had to compare information provided by applicants with other government and private databases to ensure that people with an income and recipients of other social grants are not included in these applications. 

SASSA is yet to provide a date for when payments to all successful applicants will be made, but Letsatsi stated that this would happen once everything had been verified.

"As soon as the vetting of applications is completed, the payments will start rolling in at an even faster pace."