Fraudulent Scheme Registering 18-Year-Olds for SRD Grants Bust

GOOD Statement by Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament:

The GOOD Party has asked SASSA and the Hawks to shut down a fraudulent scheme in which hundreds of Worcester and Rawsonville residents, mostly18-year-olds, are being registered for the R370 a month poverty grant without their knowledge or receiving any money. If the fraud is being committed from within SASSA, as believed, there is no reason to believe it is limited to the Breede Valley area.

GOOD submitted a complaint to SASSA and the Hawks yesterday together with a dossier of 34 separate affidavits from victims of the scheme and a list detailing more than 300 additional victims. The fraud was uncovered by GOOD Councillors in the Breede Valley Municipality who, together with community activists, have been conducting a programme to support destitute residents to apply for the so-called Social Relief of Distress Grant.

Their work quickly revealed a pattern: Hundreds of applicants who should qualify for the grant, many of whom recently turned 18-years-old, had their applications declined on the basis that their ID numbers were already linked to the grant. In other words, according to SASSA’s system they are already receiving the grant.

According to the applicants, they have never applied for or received the grant. Many report in their affidavits that telephone numbers on SASSA’s system linked to their ID numbers don’t belong to them.

In its submission to SASSA and the Hawks, the GOOD Party suggests that the fraud is being committed by an individual or individuals with access to information about recipients of Child Support Grants. The modus operandi appears to use the ID numbers of children when they turn 18, and no longer qualify for the child grant, to apply for the SRD grant. The scale of the fraud is impossible for GOOD to determine. GOOD only became aware of it because its Councillors and party activists were working with the community in the Breede Valley region. The same type of fraud could be occurring across the province or the country.

The GOOD Party commends its Councillors, Hubert Titus, Ina Joseph and Andrew Hess, and party activist Jamaine Geduld, for their care and support of their community, as well as their first-class detective work in busting corruption.

While the investigation may take some time, GOOD calls on SASSA to make urgent interim arrangements to ensure that people qualifying for grants are not denied them due to SASSA’s systemic weaknesses.

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