The anti-fraud strategy has a zero-tolerance approach to crime. It aims to make sure all criminals are arrested and sentenced to time in prison.
One of the most recent arrests is the arrest of a couple in the Eastern Cape, who defrauded SASSA of R1.2 million.
"One of the convicted fraudsters was an employee of SASSA and had access to the SASSA system while the other partner was the brains behind the fraud," said SASSA in the statement.
The former SASSA employee, Nombuso Dlamini was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while her boyfriend, Siyasanga Gqamane was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Dlamini was employed as a clerk at SASSA from 2006 to 2011. During this time, she was responsible for capturing social grant applications.
The couple was eventually arrested for registering fake social grants and using other people’s identity documents to open bank accounts to which social grants payments were made.
In another case of fraud, 23 suspects appeared in the Nelspruit Regional Court for using peoples identity documents to register fraudulent grants.
More suspects in Mpumalanga are expected to appear in court on 7 August after they were arrested for trying to hack SASSA's system.
SASSA CEO, Totsie Memela said SASSA is working with the justice system to crack down on these attempts of fraud and theft.
"This strategy is driven by multi-disciplinary teams of law enforcers who collaborate to detect fraud and unleash the might of the law on those suspected of committing it."
"We have adopted a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and will stop at nothing to root it out at first sight, so criminals, be warned," said Memela.
SASSA is confident that criminals will have a hard time stealing money from the system in the future, as it is working with banks to fight corruption and fraud.
It is calling on the public to report cases of corruption to the anti-corruption hotline on 0800 43 43 73.
"We need to work together even more with the public to fight corruption and ensure that public funds are not abused by anyone," said SASSA.
