Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Social Development has raised the alarm over serious failures in SASSA’s payment controls after it emerged that social grants were still being paid to dead beneficiaries and people employed by government.
The committee this week flagged the Department of Social Development’s qualified audit opinion for 2025/26 and warned that weaknesses in SASSA’s system are exposing public money to wastage and fraud.
Committee chairperson Bridget Masango said a qualified audit can no longer be treated as business as usual.
“A qualified audit opinion is not an outcome that the committee can accept as business as usual,” Masango said.
She said the failures were putting the entire social assistance system at risk.
“Every rand lost through weaknesses in the system is a rand that could otherwise be directed towards supporting vulnerable South Africans.”
At the centre of the committee’s concern is a breakdown in basic verification – identity checks, means testing, cross-checks against Home Affairs and government payrolls, and ongoing validation that beneficiaries are still alive and still qualify.
The committee wants to know how payments continued to people who had died and to people on the government payroll, how much money was involved, and whether the cases are fraud, administrative error or delayed reporting.
The alarm comes as SASSA insists it is tightening controls.
Social Development Minister Dina Pule has previously said grants are a lifeline and must be protected.
“Social grants are not merely payments, they are a lifeline to remove poverty from many households,” Pule said in July, adding that reviews are meant to ensure “the right grant is paid to the right person, at the right time.”
SASSA CEO Themba Matlou said reviews are meant to catch changes in eligibility.
“The review of social grants helps identify beneficiaries who may no longer qualify due to changes in financial, medical, or legal circumstances,” Matlou said, saying the process also serves as confirmation of life and helps identify people still on grants despite appearing on payroll systems.
SASSA says it flagged more than 420,000 beneficiaries for review in 2025/26, completed over 240,000 reviews, with about 160,000 people failing to complete the process. For 2026/27 it is targeting more than 350,000 reviews with projected savings of R1.5 billion.
But the committee says that is not enough, because the controls should stop improper payments before they leave the system – not months after.
SASSA has previously argued that not every payment to a deceased person is corruption. In January 2024 it said some payments happened because of the lag between a death, the reporting of that death to Home Affairs, and SASSA’s monthly payment run. The agency said it checks Home Affairs records monthly, but late reporting can mean a payment is released before the death is recorded.
Parliament now wants specifics: which grant categories were affected, the rand value of payments to deceased persons and government employees, how much has been recovered, how many payments have been stopped and how many cases have been referred for investigation.
The committee also warned that while controls must be fixed, government cannot punish legitimate beneficiaries in the process.
For millions who depend on old age grants, child support grants and disability grants for food and transport, a review means travelling to an office, queuing for hours and fearing the grant will lapse.
SASSA has warned that beneficiaries who ignore review notifications risk their grants lapsing.
