Cape Town — Many South Africans are unable to access their South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) social relief grants, as they face challenges in verifying their identities.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has expressed its concern over SASSA’s new biometric system.
The DA said in a statement that the new system requires that beneficiaries have to provide identity verification, or if someone needs to change their contact details, they will be supplied with a verification link from the Department of Home Affairs.
“There are however numerous beneficiaries who have not received this link due to systems allegedly being down at Home Affairs at the time of verification,” MP Brigit Masango said.
The DA commended SASSA’s initiative in combatting fraud with the new system but acknowledged that the agency needs to implement contingency plans to help the beneficiaries who are unable to use the system.
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It will also ensure that SASSA reports to Parliament on the challenges of the biometric verification system and the procedures that are put in place to ensure all beneficiaries are assisted.
“We will also engage with the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, to ensure that the required verification links from his Department are sent without fail,” Masango concluded.
According to The Citizen, SASSA launched the biometric system to improve the security of the social grant distribution and to prevent fraud. The agency wanted to safeguard SASSA beneficiaries from identity theft and fraudulent payments.
SASSA spokesperson, Paseka Letsatsi, acknowledged the issues and said recipients must request the link again once the system is restored. Letsatsi said those using the green ID books are more like to face more difficulties with the facial biometric verification. The agency attributed this to the poor quality of photos in these ID books.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
