SASSA Catches Government Employees For Grant Fraud

The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has caught several government workers attempting to apply for the Special Covid-19 R350 social relief grant. They caught these government workers after cross-referencing their applications with the government employee database.
Sassa spokesperson, Paseka Letsatsi says Sassa will take action against those who have applied for the grants that are not meant for them. He says that these applicants were caught due to Sassa’s improved systems. Around 100 grants were immediately suspended as Sassa began to investigate how government workers have applied and qualified for a grant.
He said “we are paying very serious attention to people who are attempting to defraud the social grant system and will definitely put measures in place to make sure that nobody still has money which is meant for the poor”
Letsatsi has also urged people who may have qualified for the unemployment grant in the past but have recently become employed to declare this to Sassa. 
He says if citizens fail to declare this, they will be caught and the case will be handed over to the South African Police Servies for further investigation. Letsatsi does say that this will only happen once Sassa has investigated the matter fully and have determined that fraud has taken place. Letsatsi has also said that Sassa is working with the South African Post Offices to ensure that people who were defrauded out of their grants will be assisted. He says that if money has been withdrawn from a beneficiary account, they should apply for an affidavit and take it to the post office. Once an investigation is completed beneficiaries will be assisted and paid their grants
Sassa will pay out over R2,1 Billion to more than 10 million social grant applicants. Letsatsi says that they have not experienced any mass problems yet and this demonstrates the improvements made to the Sassa systems.