By: Natasha Archary
Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu has admitted that R540 million in SASSA grants have been looted over the past 10-years.
Zulu was responding to a question by the Democratic Alliance (DA) in a written parliamentary Q&A session this week.
In her admission, Zulu said that R540 million in SASSA grants were paid to illegal beneficiaries over the years.
The DA revealed that 1,174 individuals, including SASSA officials and doctors had received grants which were meant for the country’s poorest people.
According to the DA, 761 of these individuals were SASSA officials, five were doctors.
The DA also said R23 million was siphoned by 50 SASSA officials, and only 37 cases were reported for investigation.
Corruption at SASSA has been under the spotlight especially in relation to the R350 social relief grant.
In response, Zulu said that the full response of the losses is unknown and most of the fraud and corruption cases are still under investigation.
However, the DA says that between 2012/2013 to 2021/2022, SASSA paid people who should not have benefitted from the grants.
“The past year, while unemployment lines kept growing and many South Africa households reported having only one meal a day, 50 officials looted R23 million from SASSA’s coffers. Yet SASSA’s annual report indicated that only 37 cases were referred to law enforcement agencies for further investigation. The Agency also had irregular expenditure of nearly R994 million in 2021/22.
It seems at SASSA the foxes are guarding the henhouse. While Minister Zulu’s media briefings and speeches are full of promises and platitudes, the poor and vulnerables’ struggles with SASSA continues. They are forced to wait in queues from dawn to dusk only to return home unassisted. They are forced to keep jumping through new hoops every month to receive vital grants. And they are the ones struggling for crumbs while SASSA officials ride the gravy train.”
The DA says it will continue to lift the lid on corruption
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