Pretoria – Beneficiaries of social grants, who have not yet re-registered, have until the end of April to do so, following an extension by the Social Development Department.
Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini said the department’s decision to extend the re-registration period from end December 2012 was based on the fact that social grants were the only source of income for many beneficiaries.
She said that from the beginning of May, her department will start sending out letters of notification to inform non-compliant beneficiaries of the intention to stop their social grants within 90 days of notification.
Dlamini updated the media on Tuesday on the progress of the re-registration process by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA).
This comes after a year Dlamini introduced the roll-out of the new biometric-based payment solution for social grants.
The system, introduced in February 2012, forms part of government’s commitment to strengthen, modernise and improve the integrity of the social security system and to eliminate all forms of fraud and corruption.
To date, out of 21 million people targeted, almost 19 million - both cash and commercial bank beneficiaries countrywide - have successfully re-registered, with some provinces already having re-registered over 97% of beneficiaries for all types of grants.
Dlamini attributed this success to SASSA for continuing to make steady progress on delivering on its key mandate, as well as all beneficiaries, who heeded the call and responded positively to the process of re-registering.
“This is an important milestone in our quest to create a clean database of social security beneficiaries. I wish to acknowledge that the most compliant of our beneficiaries were older person, where 94% of them re-registered.
“All these major achievements could not have been possible without the help of various community-based organisations and the media reaching out to all our people throughout the country, especially those in rural areas.
“With their continued assistance, we were able to further government’s mission of working together to improve the lives of our people,” Dlamini said.
However, she stressed that while they remained committed to providing this valuable assistance to the people, they equally remained committed to maintain and preserve the integrity of the social security system against possible abuse, fraud and corruption.
“This is non-negotiable, and we have adopted a zero-tolerance approach against those who deliberately defraud our system. We shall continue to root out fraud and corruption whenever and wherever it appears to ensure that social grants only go to eligible beneficiaries,” she warned.
Today, over 16 million South Africans and their families rely on social grants. Dlamini said there was a need to protect this programme for those who truly needed its benefits.
Since the roll-out of new biometric-based payment, 44 000 social grants were manually lapsed at the request of the beneficiaries, with a further 66 000 grants lapsed due to non-collection.
Dlamini allayed the fears of the people, especially the sick, frail and senior citizens over the age of 75 years, as well as care dependency grant beneficiaries that the department would continue with the scheduled home visits until the end of May 2013.
SASSA CEO Virginia Petersen also conveyed her appreciation to all beneficiaries who have heeded the call for re-registration especially senior citizens where an over whelming majority have re-registered before 31 March 2013.
“We have re-registered a total of 18 369 491 people out of a target of 21 million, which consists of 8 192 174 beneficiaries, 10 153 463 children and 23 854 procurators,” she said.
The total number of beneficiaries re-registered per grant included 94% old age, 83% veterans, 90% disability, 90% foster care, 88% care dependency and 83% child support.
The re-registration sites will be closed over the Easter weekend and will resume on 2 April 2013. A list of re-registration sites will appear at all local offices, pay points, re-registration sites, local newspaper as well as on the SASSA internet.
For more information, contact SASSA’s toll free number 0800 60 10 11 or CPS toll free number on 0800 60 01 60. – SAnews.gov.za
