SA's social security agency
19 July 2005
The South African Social Security Agency was set up by the government to root out fraud and improve efficiency in the administration of the country's social grants.
The national agency, up and running since April, aims to speed up delivery of social grants, cut down on corruption in the system, and ultimately lift the burden of administering grant applications and payments from the country's nine provinces.
The idea, says Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya, is to create "a unitary but flexible service delivery mechanism to ensure that we pay the right grant amount to the right person at the right time and in a dignified manner."
The new agency - to be fully functional within the next three years - will take over grant payments from the nine provincial social welfare departments, shouldering the responsibility of distributing over R50-billion to more than nine million needy South Africans annually.
Spreading the social security net - The state injects over R3-billion a month into the budgets of poor households through social grants, giving support to over nine million people - a number that is growing as the drive to register eligible recipients gains momentum. 
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The chief executive of the agency, Fezile Makiwane, says social aid is one of the government's main poverty alleviation programmes. South Africa's social grants target elderly and disabled people, poor families with children, war veterans, and households taking care of children and people in need.
Streamlining
grant administration
By shifting the social assistance function to national government, and alleviating the pressure of social grant administration on provincial budgets, the government believes the agency will free up provincial departments to focus on improving their social services.
The agency will improve service delivery by employing competent frontline staff to process social grant applications at the point of delivery.
At the same time, skilled back-office staff will ensure quicker verification and approval of applications by using advanced technology to communicate with other key government data sources.
The grant administration process will be streamlined, and the application process will involve fewer people and fewer steps.
Social security contracts with payment agencies and contractors will also be consolidated and standardised.
"At the heart of what government wants to achieve is improved service delivery to
beneficiaries," Makiwane told senior public servants at the fourth annual Service Delivery Learning Academy in Cape Town last week.
"The new institutional structure will be focused on the core business of grants, or benefit administration."
According to the Department of Social Development, the resultant pooling of buying power to contract for the payment of grants could result in a saving of R500-million per year, while reduction of fraud could result in an additional saving of R500-million a year.
The government has been losing an estimated R1.5-billion a year to fraud committed through social grants. Other problems have included long delays in approving grants, long queues at pay points, and low levels of service delivery.
The government recently concluded a successful amnesty campaign which saw about 30 000 ordinary South Africans owning up to receiving grants they were not entitled to - translating into about R120-million a year in savings for the
state.
Reducing dependency levels
Tabling his department's budget vote in Parliament in April, Minister Skweyiya said that South Africa had made significant progress towards alleviating poverty and enhancing social cohesion.
However, more still needed to be done, he said, to develop South Africa's economy and reduce the level of dependency on social grants.
"One of the most significant achievements we have made was the reduction of poverty through the provision of social assistance to the most vulnerable sectors of society - the elderly, people with disabilities and, most importantly, children", Skweyiya said.
Over 5.5-million South African children currently benefit from social grants. Child support grants have now been extended to 1.9-million children under 11 years, and an estimated 1.2-million children between 11 and 14 years will be registered for grants by March 2006. R6.4-billion has been set aside for this purpose.
"As we register these children, we will pay even more attention on ensuring that children who receive social grants attend school", Skweyiya said.
"We will be working closely with the Department of Education and the education fraternity in this regard."
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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