‘Hands off R350 Covid-19 grant’ public workers are told

Government employees have been warned to keep their hands off the R350 special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant.

Director-General Yoliswa Makhasi said people who did not qualify to receive the grant included public servants on the Persal system, those on internship, Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), learnership or any developmental programme and receives a form of stipend from the government.

This as Social Development Minister, Lindiwe Zulu, reported that approximately 40 000 public servants applied for the R350 relief grant in May last year and 241 public servants had received the grant.

This led the Public Service and Administration Director-General to prompt public servants to refrain from criminally benefitting from the R350 Covid-19 SRD grant.

“The DPSA calls on public servants to steer away from wanting to benefit from the R350 special relief grant as it amounts to fraud.”

Makhasi said the DPSA was concerned about the public servants who saw nothing wrong in applying for the grant while they had a source of income, particularly as the SRD grant was intended to provide relief to the poor and financially distressed citizens in the country.

“This amounts to fraud and the DPSA is ready and available to support the Department of Social Development and the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) in strengthening controls to prevent public servants from accessing the SRD grant,” Makhasi said.

She said the DPSA would ensure that any fraudulently obtained money was recovered from public servants who wrongfully benefited and that their cases would be referred to law enforcement agencies to take action on such officials.

“I want to reiterate that any official who receives any form of income from the public service, does not qualify for this grant and may not apply for it as it is tantamount to stealing from the poor,” she said.

The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development, Mondli Gungubele, has since welcomed the reinstatement of the Social Relief of Distress Grant (SRD) known as the R350 grant, until the end of March in 2022.

“Many unemployed and poor South Africans will benefit until the end of March in 2022. Despite all the challenges that the government’s service delivery is subjected to, our government is able to put a coherent plan together that will benefit our people for a period of time,” said Gungubele.

He said the committee welcomed the announcement and the commitment to help people out of the jaws of poverty.

Gungubele called on the Department of Social Development and Sassa to be prudent and add stricter measures when it comes to monitoring the grant.

“Those that the intervention is intended for must benefit.”

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