Money Missing

The South African Security Agency’s (SASSA) slogan is “Paying the right social grant, to the right person at the right time and place”.

People fall victim to crime to receive their grants since the introduction of the card system in Lekwa.

According to official reports, this is a national problem.

A woman in Sakhile said she received her grant in October and discovered that R99 was taken from her money for airtime she did not receive.

“R99 was missing from my money and when I checked the receipt, it showed that R99 was deducted because I bought airtime.

“I did not receive any airtime, but my money was taken,” the woman said.

She reported the matter to the SASSA offices and was told they couldn’t help her.

The same amount was deducted from her account this month.

“This is corruption, I never signed anywhere giving someone permission to take my money,” she said.

Another woman said that R55 is deducted from her account monthly.

According to her, she also did not give anyone permission to deduct that amount from her account.

“I never signed anywhere and I never gave my personal details to anyone.

“I don’t understand how is this happening,” she said.

Another woman with the same problem reported the matter to SASSSA officials and they told her to go to the police station.

“I went to the police station and they told me that they cannot help, they took me back to SASSA offices and they agreed with the officials from SASSA that I should open a case,” she said.

A case was opened and it is being investigated.

Mr Senzeni Ngubeni, Communications Officer of SASSA in Mpumalanga, said people register for services they don’t know and return to SASSA claiming that someone is taking their money.

“People should use their money wisely because our system shows most of these people who are complaining, registered with the company that sells airtime.

“There is nothing SASSA can do, except ask people to be vigilant and stop joining things they don’t know of,” Mr Ngubeni said.

According to an article published in a news website (IT Web) on 5 November, allegations surfaced stating that the company that is administrating and distributing social grants uses the SASSA database to market and sell airtime to beneficiaries.

The article also stated that to be registered for that, all that is needed to buy airtime, is a SASSA card number.

According to the article, this leaves the system open to fraudsters to buy huge amounts of airtime and then resell it to make large profits.

According to the parent company, Net1 UEPS Technologies, its airtime solution called, “Umoya Manje” is affordable and assists the poorest of the poor and follows all the regulatory requirements.

According to the article, Ms Thuli Madonsela, Public Protector, questioned the company’s practices earlier in May.

She confirmed that she will conduct a preliminary investigation into the allegations that the company has been operating an illegal loan scheme, targeting grant beneficiaries.