The minister appeared before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Social Development on Wednesday.
Minister of Social Development Sisisi Tolashe has addressed an alleged security breach of social grant.
The minister appeared before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Social Development on Wednesday.
Two first-year Computer Science students from Stellenbosch University, Joel Cedras and Veer Gosai, recently wrote a GroundUp expose on alleged “massive fraud” in Sassa’s Covid-19 grant system.
The pair claimed to have been searching for weaknesses in government and private-sector systems.
Speaking on the alleged breach, Tolashe said she recognised the concerns raised and was “committed to addressing them with utmost urgency and diligence”.
She said the allegations from the students were “extremely alarming” but remained as such.
“The students have not favoured Sassa with any reports or evidence to support their allegations. Nor have they agreed to several invitations from Sassa to present their findings.
“We have directed Sassa to initiate investigations into the matter. However, in the absence of reliable information from the source of the allegations, Sassa has not been able to complete its investigations.”
She said the system had struggled to keep up with the sharp increase in social grant recipients from 2.4 million in 1998 to the current 28 million.
She said the department’s large budget, R35 billion is allocated for grants, made it attractive to criminals who “make a career” out of trying to exploit the system.
This is a developing story.
