The South African Social Security Agency is providing financial assistance to South African citizens particularly those who are in need and are unable to pay for their basic expenses. The organisation is serving the poor South Africans and is playing an important role in eradicating poverty in the country.
Recently, the department faced allegations of fraud and the possibility of scam in the SRD grant system when two of the first year students Veer Gosai and Joe Cedras presented their findings about the presence of security flaws in the grant application system. Both students presented their findings in front of Parliament on Wednesday. This created chaos in not only SASSA but also in the Department of Social Development.
Students Report
According to the presentation, Cedras attempted to apply for the SRD grant and got to know that his application is already active with his name.
He informs this to his friend and then discusses the situation with Gosai. Veer Gosai then checked his data on SRD Status check and got to know that there is another current application that was active on his name too, without his knowledge.
Both students investigated the matter deeply and took out three main issues;
- High number of fraudulent applications
- Lack of authentication on SASSA main portal
- The ease of access to grants for fraudsters
Both of the students got to know that there are a high count of fraudulent applications on SASSA that are currently registered and the payments are being given to fraudsters who have registered with fraud and are receiving financial assistance instead of truly needy people. They also concluded that fraudsters can easily access the grants and SASSA system because of lack of security in the organisation setup.
The students continued that after their findings, they further investigated and conducted a survey with other 60 people in their campus. According to them, 58 of those 60 people were having active grant applications for SRD grants on the SASSA system. And among those 58, 56 of the students claim that they never applied for the grants.
This ensured the presence of a high rate of fraud and scam application in the SASSA system. Both students further presented their findings about the high rate of applications submitted from people born in February 2005.
According to them, they found that there were 74,931 SRD grant applications that were submitted from the people who were born in February 2005. The students after finding this then checked the data from South Africa statistics as of 2020.
According to that data, there were only 82,097 births in February 2005 which means that the application rate is 91%. Well, of course this is highly unlikely because this 91% is far more than youth unemployment in South Africa that at that time was around 61%.
Both the students also spoke about their personal experience that they called helpline numbers but they were unable to reach any of their customer service agents. According to them, they were calling the helpline to ask for the issue of their identity numbers being registered for SASSA grant without their consent, but they were unable to get answers. They said all of the numbers of SASSA that are available either do not exist or answered immediately but no response was given.
Minister Of Social Development Response
The Minister of Social Development Nokuzola Tolashe, said that investigations will be conducted and the matter will be thoroughly investigated to check for any frauds or scams present in the grant system. The Department of Social Development said that they are going to conduct in depth investigations on the matter and will present their findings within 30 days.
The decision was made after both students presented their findings where they highlighted vulnerability in the SASSA payment system!
The Minister Quoted Some Facts And Figures Too!
According to Minister of Social Development, Nokuzola Tolashe, the total budget of SASSA for social grants is R 266 billion that benefits more than 28 million people of South Africa. Among these 28 million people, she said that there are more than 8 million people who are getting SRD grants.
She further said that this much high budget of the department can attract fraudsters. According to her,
“The department’s budget makes it an attractive target for fraudsters, some of whom have made a career out of trying to steal this money by forming very sophisticated syndicates of cybercriminals to target this large budget”.
Tolashe requested the committee to give them enough time so they can conduct thorough investigation about the issue and look for the areas where there is a need for reconsideration. She further said that they are not going to take forever to sort out the case because they are aware of how much they will lose and are still losing because of the system’s vulnerability.
The committee in response to the request, postponed SASSA presentation and gave them the time until the investigation is completed. The Chairperson of the Social Development Committee, Bridgette Masango says,
“Please go away and take the 30 days you have asked for to do a presentation that will satisfy the committee but also the R 28 million people that their money is not just syphoned away by fraudsters and that SASSA is doing nothing about it.”