How six adults and four kids turn R480.00 child grants into R38 520.00

by Gaynor Ungerer

Before I start my rant of disbelief and shock, let me first familiarize you with the current SASSA grants available to citizens, foreigners, and refugees. There are nine grants managed by SASSA, namely the Care Dependency Grant, the Child Support Grant, the Disability Grant, the Foster Child Grant, the Grant In-Aid, the Older Person Grant, the Social Relief Grant, the War Veterans Grant, and the Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress. For this exercise, we will be focusing on how the Child Support Grant (R480 + R240 CSG) in conjunction with the Foster Child Grant (R1 050) enables six non-citizen adults and four children to draw a combined R38 520.00 each month. I was approached earlier this week by one of the locals in my area, requesting me to help him with paperwork for his wife to enable her to claim from SASSA. He has two wives, one that lives with him here in the winelands and another who lives in town. He has one child per wife and is not legally married to either. He also has a brother that lives here in the winelands, and his wife is back in Zimbabwe. She visited South Africa a year ago, heavily pregnant, and left to go back to Zimbabwe once her daughter was born. Little did I know that she came here specifically to give birth for the sole purpose of accessing the grants. These babies are known as "anchor babies". They also have a ‘brother’ in the winelands who also has a wife and a child. Viola! Six Adults, four children. He presented me with a download link to a form off SASSA’s website. I printed it out and helped him fill it in. I was astonished to read on SASSA’s website that no more than six people can apply for Foster Child Grant per child. Six people, I asked? How can six people apply for a care grant for one child. But wait, let me explain … you qualify for the grant if you look after a child for more than three days in a month-cycle or say you look after a specific child for three or more days in a month. You do not need to supply an ID, a birth certificate or even a passport to access the grant; you simply have to fill in the form and have it signed by your pastor. There are many ‘pastors’ willing to sign their names on a document for a fee. And there you go, Bob’s your uncle. Signed, sealed, and delivered. Each adult applies for a R720.00 child grant for each child, claiming to be single and unemployed. Each adult claims a R1 050.00 care grant, stating they are unemployed and caring for the children at least three days of the month. (6 x R720.00) + (24 x R1 050) = R29 520.00 … But wait, there’s more …. Add on to that the disability grant of (R1 500 per person x 6) = R 9 000.00 disability grant! Are all these people disabled? I can assure you that they are not. But unbeknown to the normal members of society, having HIV/AIDS or TB qualifies you for a disability grant. Having TB qualifies you for a six-month period. If you stop taking your meds and relapse, your six-month cycle starts again, all thanks to Mr Bill Gates and his Gates Foundation. Getting diagnosed with TB at a local satellite clinic is as easy as handing over a R200 note. There you have it … six adults, all foreigners, with their four children claiming R 38 520.00 between them each month. They all work together to game the system. I could never understand how they could drive the vehicles they drive. Nor could I understand how they always manage to have the latest cell phones, the most expensive sneakers, elaborate hair extensions (these are not cheap) and up-to-date fashion. Now I know and now you know. I decided I wanted to do something with this information and opted to report the scam to SASSA’s corruption hotline. Let’s see if anything happens.