Cape Town — The Democratic Alliance (DA) wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa to request an urgent Presidential Proclamation for the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate fraud at the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA).
In a statement, the DA said SASSA has revealed that allegations of widescale fraud pertaining to the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, that has been substantiated by an independent investigation.
“The vulnerability assessment, and independent investigation, conducted by an external service provider, Masegare & Associates Incorporated, detailed multiple vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the SRD grant system which substantiate the findings of the two Stellenbosch University Students who presented to the Committee on 23 October 2024,” the DA’s Alexander Abrahams said.
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The findings identified gaps in risks in several factors including:
- Multiple applicants per cell phone number;
- OTP-based authentication;
- Mobile money and cash sent;
- Biometric verification;
- Server location and access control. i.e. internal threats and access control at SASSA;
- Cell phone ownership validation;
- Data encryption;
- Call centre security; and
- The need for regular security audits and penetration testing.
Abrahams said the fundamental design flaw of the SRD system is that it lacks identity verification and the system was snot designed to verify the person using the system is actually the owner of the ID number.
“There is “OTP verification” but there is no way of knowing that the cellphone number used belongs to the same person as the ID number. And there is biometric verification which is used only in “cases of suspected fraud” but the report does not explain how the fraud is detected,” Abrahams said.
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The investigation is aimed at the SRC grant system but it does not exclude the likelihood of other vulnerabilities and statutory grants including Child Support, Disability, Foster Care and Old Age and Care Dependency.
He added that the DA has received more than 258 emails from South Africans to detail their experiences of being locked out of social grants despite being eligible.
“The Democratic Alliance remains steadfast in our commitment to expose weaknesses and fraud within the social grant system and fight for all South Africans. We urge those affected by issues with the SRD grant to continue to share their experiences by emailing us. This information will help us gather critical data in identifying patterns of corruption and inefficiencies to hold those responsible to account,” Abrahams concluded.
According to The Citizen, Masegare & Associates Incorporated’s investigation found that the fraud in SASSA’s SRD grant application failed to answer critical questions.
A month ago, Stellenbosch University students, Veer Gosai and Joel Cedras, found a number of fraudulent SRD grant applications, and that some of them had been successful.
First-year computer science students, Joel Cedras and Veer Gosai, from Stellenbosch University have uncovered a major fraud scheme involving SASSA’s Social Relief of Distress Grant. During their investigation into vulnerabilities in government systems, they found numerous… pic.twitter.com/OsdF0fe8An
— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) October 18, 2024
An application is declared fraudulent if it is made using someone else’s ID number, which poses two dangers. If a fraudulent application succeeds, the money is paid to someone else, and the people who need the grant may no longer apply as their ID number is being used by someone else already.
The SRD grant is currently R370 per month. About eight million people receive it. The application system has severe security flaws. While we don’t know how many fraudulent applications have successfully received SRD grants, it’s potentially a large number.
- How are fraudulent applications being made?
- How many of them are succeeding?
- How many grants have been paid out to ID numbers fraudulently?
- How are fraudulent applicants managing to open accounts to receive those fraudulent payouts with companies such as Shoprite and Thyme Bank?
- What steps, if any, can be taken to recover fraudulent payouts?
- What steps, if any, can be taken to identify the forgers?
- What steps can be taken to stop these fraudulent applications? (This shouldn’t be difficult.)
Not a single one of these questions was answered by the investigation, at least not as it has been publicly presented. The investigators did not even meet with Gosai and Cedras.
Pleasingly, some Members of Parliament on Wednesday put penetrating questions to the Department of Social Development about the investigation.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
