BL Premium reports that social development minister Lindiwe Zulu has told parliament that a total of R12.6m has been recovered from government employees who illegally claimed social grants meant for needy and vulnerable people.

The social grants concerned cater for the aged, child support, foster care and disability, and R250bn was budgeted to pay grants to about 18.6-million beneficiaries in 2022/2023. In a written reply to a question by Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Mimmy Gondwe, Zulu said altogether 165,297 public servants were found to have received social grants, excluding the R350 social relief of distress grant meant to help those made destitute by the Covid-19 pandemic. Payments to those 165,297 public servants were suspended in September 2021 as it was suspected they did not qualify for the grants. Zulu said all 165,297 cases were subjected to a review process, as required by the Social Assistance Act. “The process to determine eligibility is an intensive manual process. The teams are still engaging the public servants as they come forward to complete the review process,” Zulu indicated. So far 63,212 public servants were found to qualify for the grants after they completed the review process and 3,268 were found not to qualify. The grant review process is not yet finalised and 98,817 beneficiaries must still be reviewed. All those found to have received a grant to which they were not entitled will have to repay the amounts and will also face disciplinary action through their respective departments.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)

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