The Pretoria High Court found invalid, among other things, the requirement for grant recipients to apply online only.
The Gauteng High Court has ruled the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA)’s 2023 regulations which limited access to the R370 social relief of distress (SRD) grant are unconstitutional and invalid.
The landmark judgement was handed down on Thursday.
Legal action
Last year, organisations the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) and advocacy group #PayTheGrants (#PTG) took the social development minister to court over the 2023 SRD grant regulations that had major effects on recipients.
The organisations argued that the regulations unlawfully excluded millions of impoverished individuals from accessing the grant as well as the definition of the word “income” was too broad as it included financial support received through means outside of employment.
Judgement
In a scathing judgement, Judge ML Twala said SASSA and the Department of Social Development “seem to be oblivious” to the human suffering and indignation caused by the combination of inefficient administration and the deployment of regulations with barriers that preclude the eligible SRD grant applicants from receiving it.
Twala declared that a regulation relating to the SRD grant was unconstitutional to the extent that it provided for SRD grant applications to be lodged on an electronic platform only. The court said to remedy that regulation, the words “or at the offices of the agency” shall be read in after the words “on the electronic platform”.
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‘No explanation’
In addition, Twala said Government had provided no explanation why the SRD grant was significantly less than the food poverty line although the purpose of the SRD grant is to alleviate hunger and poverty.
The food poverty line for 2023 was R760 a month, while the SRD grant was pegged at R350.
The court also declared that the words “financial support” means money received on a regular basis which benefits the recipient, that does not constitute income, and which the recipient has a legal right to receive.
“Regulation 2(3)(c)(1) is declared unconstitutional and invalid to the extent that it makes provision for “checks against databases that may indicate income or alternative financial assistance”.
“Regulation 2(3)(c)(ii) is declared unconstitutional and invalid to the extent that it directs that SRD grant applicants’ applications are assessed according to a proxy means test consisting of verification of insufficient means with banks,” the court ruled.
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The court also declared another regulation to be invalid to the extent that it made payments to beneficiaries of the SRD grant subject to available funds and permitted the SASSA to withhold payment of the SRD grant to SRD grant beneficiaries if available funds were depleted.
The court directed that SASSA investigate the cause of widespread delays in payments to successful SRD grant applicants and devise and implement a plan to address those delays.
“The Minister of Social Development is directed to deliver a plan to the parties and this Court within four months of the date of this order and implement the plan without delay.
“The applicants are entitled to re-enrol the matter, on duly supplemented papers, to seek further relief in relation to the Minister of Social Development’s implementation of paragraphs 17 or 18,” Twala ruled.
‘Unfathomable’
The court described as unfathomable why the minister and SASSA would justify an irrational and arbitrary verification procedure that excluded people who were eligible and entitled to access the SRD grant.
In October last year, SASSA reported that more than 17 million people applied for the SRD grant last IEJ noted that the figures aligned with previous peaks, although the grant remained capped at 8.5 million beneficiaries.
The recent figures mark an increase of over three million people since September 2021, which recorded 13.8 million applications.
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