Question NW1991 to the Minister of Social Development

Reply:

1. (a) and (b)

Table 1 shows that as at July 2021, 177 108 social grants were received by employees of national and provincial government departments. The Table also shows the breakdown by grant type.

NATIONAL/PROVINCIAL DEPARTMENT	Care Dependency Grant	Com	Child Support Grant	Disability Grant	Foster Child Grant	Old Age Grant	TOTAL
EASTERN CAPE	413	47	8570	435	2063	595	12123
FREE STATE	116	8	2916	114	529	144	3827
GAUTENG	537	15	20136	460	901	221	22270
KWAZULU/NATAL	1717	74	61384	3321	3414	8449	78359
LIMPOPO PROVINCE	267	10	8577	186	826	466	10332
MPUMALANGA	224	4	7744	302	617	512	9403
NATIONAL DEPARTMENTS	630	22	10113	372	1605	522	13264
NON GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS			14	1	2		17
NORTH WEST	416	25	17074	579	846	246	19186
NORTHERN CAPE	127	14	3474	217	313	228	4373
WESTERN CAPE	192	3	3079	111	473	96	3954
TOTAL	4639	222	143081	6098	11589	11479	177108

Table 1: Number of National and Provincial government employees receiving social grants per province

2. (a) The total amount that SASSA has spent in paying Public Service employees who applied for and received SASSA administered grants is

approximately R200, 7 million. Table 2 shows the amount paid during July 2021.

Table 2: Amount paid to public servants during July 2021 per province by grant type

REGION	CSG	DG	FCG	CDG	COM	OAG	Total
Eastern Cape	R8,037,695	R1,513,124	R3,719,837	R1,259,226	R232,733	R1,613,858	R16,376,473
Free State	R2,232,898	R342,625	R949,518	R323,190	R36,540	R349,913	R4,234,684
Gauteng	R13,158,586	R1,115,230	R1,753,063	R1,426,750	R76,020	R620,144	R18,149,793
KwaZulu Natal	R63,236,049	R9,706,180	R7,970,354	R5,564,046	R419,155	R20,866,448	R107,762,232
Limpopo	R9,902,243	R642,859	R1,638,430	R881,959	R54,540	R933,824	R14,053,855
Mpumalanga	R7,233,146	R882,309	R1,129,420	R722,528	R27,510	R1,249,995	R11,244,908
North West	R2,797,271	R646,044	R650,465	R435,553	R62,160	R553,705	R5,145,198
Northern Cape	R14,185,790	R1,504,404	R1,958,887	R1,310,375	R106,680	R534,644	R19,600,780
Western Cape	R2,081,331	R294,809	R960,180	R516,273	R29,610	R337,522	R4,219,725
Total	R122,865,009	R16,647,584	R20,730,154	R12,439,900	R1,044,948	R27,060,053	R200,787,648

2. (b) Steps taken against the implicated employees

It should be noted that all social grants are means tested, apart from the foster child grant. Public servants are entitled to receive the foster child grant. Where the foster child grant is paid in conjunction with a care dependency grant for the same child neither are means tested, and public servants would not be contravening any laws by receiving these grants.

For the remainder of the grant types, the means test would need to be applied. Since the information has been extracted, arrangements have been made to suspend the grants, apart from the foster child grants, for all public servants. Those who still qualify will have to come in and review the grant, and provide current information on their income, to determine whether they still qualify to receive these grants.

Measures will also be taken to recover any funds overpaid. Where it is found that the public servants were receiving a grant to which they were not entitled, the matter will be reported to their employing department, for disciplinary action to be taken.