Progress made in social grants re-registration

By Gabi Khumalo

Soweto - Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini says good progress is being made in the enrolment of social grant beneficiaries on the new biometric-based payment system since the process started on 1 March 2012.

Dlamini on Monday visited a grant pay-point station in Diepkloof Zone 1, Soweto, to assess progress being made in the first phase of the re-registration process, which the Social Development Department has undertaken to verify the authenticity of grant recipients and eliminate fraud in the system.

The biometric-based system requires taking fingerprints, conducting voice verification of grant recipients and issuing them with new biometric magstripe cards with the SASSA and government logos. 

As of 1 March, new beneficiaries are being enrolled on the new biometric system at local offices of the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) upon application. SASSA has registered over 60 000 new applications since 1 March.

As part of this phase, Sekulula beneficiaries are also being enrolled on the new system and issued with the new biometric-based payment card. 

Sekulula refers to a debit card-based transactional account that allows government grant recipients access to grants electronically at ATMs or point-of-sale devices. 

To date, a total of 878 000 (88%) of Sekulula beneficiaries have re-registered. 

During this phase, recipients' fingerprints are also being taken at the pay-point stations to verify the recipients' identities.

Unlike on the old system, recipients with the new cards will now be able to get their pension grants in any part of the country, including in supermarkets.

During the visit to Soweto, Dlamini said from June, recipients older than 75 years -- whose grants are being collected by other people on their behalf due to illness or hospitalisation -- would also be visited where they reside.

"... We will visit them and take fingerprints... Recipients who get their money through banks and Post Bank will continue getting their money until June, when they will have to re-register and get the new cards," Dlamini explained.

This second phase (1 June - 31 December), Dlamini said, will be the live verification period, where all grant recipients in the country will have to go the SASSA offices where they had registered for fingerprints and voice verification. Babies' footprints will also be taken.

Dlamini ensured the recipients that the process was not aimed at complicating their lives but it was to ensure that the right people were getting grants. She noted that during the last financial year, the department lost R45 million due to fraud.

"We want to make it easy for you and ensure that right people are being paid... We need your support."

The deadline for re-registering is 31 December.

"The whole of December we will be checking on those who haven't come to [re-register] and look at the reasons for failing to do so," Dlamini said, warning that the new cards should not be kept by anyone except the recipient and SASSA, and anyone found in possession of a card will be arrested. - BuaNews