Parliamentary Hearing Exposes Grant Payments to Ineligible Recipients; SASSA Told to Tighten Verification
On Wednesday, October 7, 2026, Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Social Development met over the administration of social grants, after the Auditor-General's findings for the Department of Social Development and its entities indicated that grant money had been paid to people who should not have received it. SASSA's later statement on October 9 and multiple media reports traced the matter to the 2025/26 audit, and committee chairperson Bridget Masango demanded tighter controls and a detailed SASSA action plan on recovering improper payments and preventing a recurrence.
Masango said every rand paid to someone ineligible is a rand taken from a vulnerable person who truly needs it. The audit highlighted weaknesses including inadequate income verification, insufficient checks on beneficiary status, and delays in removing deceased individuals from the payment system. Weekly roundups of the coverage noted intense parliamentary and media attention on the amounts involved; the Auditor-General's formal report remains the authoritative source for the figures.
Responding on October 9, the South African Social Security Agency welcomed continued scrutiny of public funds, stressed that social assistance is a constitutional obligation and a critical safety net for millions of vulnerable South Africans, and said the system must equally be protected against fraud, abuse, error, misrepresentation and payments to people who no longer qualify. SASSA rejected suggestions that its intensified grant reviews and eLife certification were designed to exclude legitimate beneficiaries, saying a grant is not an unconditional entitlement and beneficiaries must report changes in income, employment, marital status, banking details and residence.
South Africa's grant system supports tens of millions of people, anchors its poverty-relief architecture and accounts for a large share of public spending. The improper-payment findings therefore strike at the system's credibility: controls that are too loose leak public money, while controls that are too blunt can harm the most vulnerable. The committee's deadlines and SASSA's remediation plan will be the focus of oversight in the months ahead.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：南非议会大厦（开普敦），社会补助听证在此举行。摄影：Dietmar Rabich，CC BY-SA 4.0，来源：Wikimedia Commons
