SASSA does it again – and that’s not a good thing!

Earlier this year, pensioners and the disabled complained that monies owed to them by way of a state grant weren’t making it into these new South African Social Security Agency accounts.

At the time SASSA promised that these problems would looked at very seriously and that in addition to ID and voice recognition, biometric scanners will be placed at SASSA offices and supermarkets across the country for further consumer protection. 
But what has changed 6 months later? Not much, it would seem. I am still receiving a steady stream of complaints from SASSA card holders with content ranging from no security to monies not arriving into the account on time. 

Mr Kay Moonsamy had his pension fraudulently withdrawn from his account three times. When he contacted SASSA this last time, he was informed that he had reported his card stolen and a new one issued. Except he didn’t. A new card had in fact been issued to a fraudster in Richards Bay. And so Moonsamy has been out of his pension pocket, struggling to make ends meet on even basic things, through no fault of his. 

Vusi Mahaye from SASSA says this issue is worrying for his agency but they are operated by the Grinrod Bank and so like any other financial institution they are open to unscrupulous fraudsters out there. I find this unacceptable since Grinrod is NOT a transactional bank and so protection should be better.

Mahaye also admits that in order for something like this to happen there has to be collusion between a fraudster and a SASSA employee because both need information from each other to make the crime happen. But what kind of screening takes place when these officials are employed? And why is this allowed to continue if SASSA is aware of the problems? 

Have you had a problem with SASSA?

You can email Terence Pillay at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @terencepillay1

Take a listen to this morning’s show.