Ongoing SASSA safety points are placing Minister Sisisi Tolashe’s management underneath the microscope. This is despite the fact that the alleged infractions occurred throughout the reign of the earlier minister. Nevertheless, as reported by The South African lately, the Social Security Agency of South Africa is known to have underspent to the tune of R4 billion, says by the Auditor-General of SA.

Even so, the company says it has recouped R150-million in Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grants made to ineligible beneficiaries, stories GroundUp. This follows a damning revelation by two Stellenbosch University pc science college students who had their ID numbers stolen to defraud the SASSA SRD R370 grant system.

ONGOING SASSA SECURITY ISSUES

Two first-year pc science college students, Joel Cedras and Veer Gosai, have been checking for ‘vulnerabilities’ in government portals like SASSA SRD. Using completely ‘legal methods’, the scholars say they had been capable of test greater than 300 000 ID numbers of individuals born between February 2005 to May 2006.

Their findings present that there’s a 90% utility fee for SASSA SRD grants throughout the pattern group. This is disproportionately excessive and unlikely to have occurred naturally, in comparison with the typical utility fee of 52% of different age teams.

INELIGIBLE PAYMENTS

Last week, Senior audit supervisor Puleng Molapo briefed the Portfolio Committee on Social Development in parliament of its findings. Allegedly, between May 2020 and August 2021 – at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic – SASSA made a number of ineligible SRD grant funds. “This is attributed to a lack of internal controls and adequate validations,” defined Molapo.

Therefore, the Auditor-General recommends SASSA takes disciplinary motion in opposition to SASSA workers receiving social grants. Furthermore, it should develop a plan to confirm the eligibility of grant beneficiaries regularly. Possibly via the State Information Technology Agency (SITA). Similarly, parliamentary committee chair Bridget Masango criticised a scarcity of ‘consequence management’ throughout the Department of Social Development.

FULL REBOOT REQUIRED

In conclusion, the pc science college students imagine solely a full reboot will resolve the systemic SASSA safety points. “The complete SASSA SRD system must be re-envisioned. We suggest that SASSA reverify each single grant utility. But additionally that it requests extra particulars to confirm accounts. Moreover, SASSA’s dedication to biometric verification defeats the aim of the SRD grant, which is meant to be accessible to folks.

“Instead, verification should include details such as ID document issue date, as used by many banks and financial institutions. Moreover, authorities must come forward and fully disclose the scale of these systemic SASSA security issues. Who maintains the system, what security checks are in place? And, most importantly, who are the masterminds responsible for this organised mass fraud?” conclude Cedras and Gosai.

DO YOU THINK THE SASSA SRD PORTAL IS COMPROMISED?

Let us know by clicking on the remark tab under or by emailing info@thesouthafrican.com. You may ship a WhatsApp to 060 011 0211. Don’t overlook to observe @TheSAnews on X and The South African on Facebook for the newest social media updates.