Go radia batšofadi: Ntwa ya Afrika Borwa kgahlanong le go ‘radiwa ga batho’

The document examines fraud within South Africa's social grant system, asserting that while the government focuses on policing beneficiaries, the majority of significant fraud is perpetrated by state officials and contractors. It details various types of fraud, including the theft of funds by SASSA and Post Office employees, and criticizes the government's current verification tools—such as automated computer systems, bank statement checks, and biometric verification—for erroneously flagging eligible poor people as fraudsters. The report concludes that these measures create barriers for the elderly and disabled, effectively 'robbing' them of their rights to social assistance.

• A significant portion of reported fraud in the social grant system is perpetrated by government officials, employees, and contractors rather than the beneficiaries themselves.
• Since 2014, government officials have stolen at least R354.88 million from social grant funds through fraudulent activities.
• The government's anti-fraud strategies, including automated computer systems and bank statement checks, frequently result in the erroneous exclusion of eligible beneficiaries.
• Biometric verification and 'Know Your Customer' (eKYC) processes create insurmountable barriers for the most vulnerable, particularly those with old ID documents or those facing technological discrimination.
• The process of 'person-to-person' verification is severely under-resourced, with SASSA only able to conduct 25,000 such checks per month despite hundreds of thousands of people being placed under review.
• Beneficiaries are 'attacked twice': first by fraudsters who steal their grants, and then by government agencies that penalize them for fraud they did not commit.

APA

Institute for Economic Justice (2025). Go radia batšofadi: Ntwa ya Afrika Borwa kgahlanong le go ‘radiwa ga batho’. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/IEJ-UBIG-13-fact-sheet-Sepedi-2.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Economic Justice. Go radia batšofadi: Ntwa ya Afrika Borwa kgahlanong le go ‘radiwa ga batho’. 2025. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/IEJ-UBIG-13-fact-sheet-Sepedi-2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Economic Justice |title=Go radia batšofadi: Ntwa ya Afrika Borwa kgahlanong le go ‘radiwa ga batho’ |date=2025 |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/IEJ-UBIG-13-fact-sheet-Sepedi-2.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforeconomicjustice2025radia, author = {{Institute for Economic Justice}}, title = {{Go radia batšofadi: Ntwa ya Afrika Borwa kgahlanong le go ‘radiwa ga batho’}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2025}, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/IEJ-UBIG-13-fact-sheet-Sepedi-2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }