The Minister of the Department of Social Development, Sisisi Tolashe, held a briefing on the outcomes of an investigation into the security of the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant. There are currently around 17 million SRD grant beneficiaries.
"We had to adopt a unique approach since potential applicants were not part of any existing government grant support programs, and Covid-19 regulations restricted physical interactions," explained Tolashe.
This investigation comes after two first-year Stellenbosch University students, Joel Cedras and Veer Gosai, found that fraudsters were using unsuspecting citizens' identity numbers to apply for the SRD Grant and receiving the funds in bank accounts using the same ID numbers. This potentially eliminated deserving people from accessing government relief.
"In response to these allegations, Parliament recommended a comprehensive investigation of the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) system and all other grant systems administered by Sassa. Parliament’s directive reflects concerns over the integrity and security of Sassa’s digital systems across various grant types."
The Department then established a task team to look into the SRD system and all other grant systems administered by Sassa.
The Minister said:
We did so with the understanding that the society and our people, especially those who are receiving grants, had anxiety already when this matter was raised because everybody was worried [that they won’t be able to get their grants].
DSD is set to look into how penetrable their systems are to individuals who aren’t authorised to access it and in turn, find solutions and put recovery plans in place to make sure any money disbursed incorrectly is returned.
Tolashe said that they will work to “make sure that the right people get to access the grant” and that they will review the entire grant infrastructure, focusing on identifying and mitigating potential vulnerabilities, ensuring the security of beneficiary data, and safeguarding public resources.
Everything is not lost. We are in charge. We will make sure that no money goes to the wrong people. If that is the case, we will employ all the ways to make sure that we get that money back.
Stellenbosch Students Uncover SRD Grant Fraud
After conducting legal vulnerability tests, the pair of students found that the system allowed an alarming number of grant applications for people born in February 2005, with a 91% application rate—an unusually high figure suggesting potential fraud.
We found that 74,931 SRD grant applications were made for people born in February 2005. According to Statistics South Africa (as of 2020) there were 82,097 births in February 2005. This would mean that the application rate is roughly 91%.
The students also conducted a campus survey of 60 students which revealed that 56 of them had SRD grant applications made in their names even though they had never applied.
A preliminary report has now been presented to the Parliamentary Committee which included information on SRD grant disbursements and improvements which are needed.
During the investigation, some challenges were identified with the Minister recommending that the department be granted additional time to “dive deeper into the actual problem”.
We are not saying this is new. We understand that the whole world, we are all in a problem of cyber criminality and unfortunately, Sassa is a part of that.
Parliamentary Committee members previously said that they had previously raised similar concerns with Sassa and the Department multiple times over the years. Despite warnings from other members of the public, Sassa had yet to take action on these issues, which committee members acknowledged were preventing eligible people from accessing grants.
"As technology evolves rapidly, it is crucial for any organization to stay abreast of advancements, continuously monitor risks, and adapt to ensure not only compliance but also excellence in using technology to drive and implement new solutions."
