Civil rights organisations have called on the government to go beyond the current amendments gazetted to the provision of the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant to allow more South Africans to gain access to the grant.
In response to pressure from civil society and a threat of litigation, Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu gazetted amendments on August 16 regarding the provision of the R350 grants, a step that non-governmental organisations saw as “too little” and failed to address other critical issues.
As at June 2022, South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) received 11 369 797 applications of which only 5 278 563 were approved.
Black Sash launched a court application in July, challenging the“retrogressive and unconstitutional” measures introduced by the government for eligibility of the grant.
In terms of the amendments the income threshold to qualify for the grant has been increased from R350 to R624.
And the bank verification as the final determination for means testing was also removed.
Black Sash’s advocacy manager Hoodah Abrahams-Fayker said the move was still limiting as it would only be applicable from August 1 and not retrospectively from April.
“The amendment is just a small step.
“There are many challenges with the SRD grant and we will continue to put pressure on the government to address them,” said Abraham-Fayker.
The remaining critical issues included the income verification process which relied on data from the banks and government departments such as Sars, Labour department and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
Abraham-Fayker said the databases were not up-to-date and this was no solution to the challenge of determining eligibility.
Another civil rights campaign, #PayTheGrants said it was also "bitterly disappointed" that not all proposed changes were effected.
“This a poor and massively inadequate solution to harm that the government themselves created in the April regulations,” said the campaign, adding that the amendments also failed to address the SRD’s administration and technical challenges faced by beneficiaries.
“We are frustrated at seeing more meaningful justice being denied. #PayTheGrants called for clarification regarding the use of bank verification as any funds received into a bank account or via cashsend or money markets were considered as income.”
The campaign said there was no clear distinction made between an income and help or monies sent by family members, friends, child maintenance, child grants, outstanding SRD money or those who had to sell their belongings to tide them over until the grant was paid.
This is the reason why about 70% of declined applicants were shot down – after an alternative source of income identified.
According to campaign classify these as reasons to deny the grant was inhumane and deeply flawed.
Both Black Sash and #PayTheGrant called for the application and appeal process to be widened and not be exclusively made online and in only English.
They reiterated their calls for the introduction of the Universal Basic Income Grant and on the government to fix all issues of access and delivery, including making Post Offices available as pay stations again.