Around 7.5 million people receive the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant each month. But more than 13 million people applied for the grant in January alone – mostly from KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, and Limpopo.
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) revealed this in Parliament on Wednesday.
According to the agency, it is mostly young people who receive the grant that was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic to assist those who could no longer make a living due to its impact.
In providing a breakdown of the SRD grant recipients, Sassa revealed that the majority of those receiving the R350 grant are women.
At least 60% of recipients are between the ages of 18 and 35 years – and at least 45% of them have a grade 12 certificate.
Since April, the Department of Social Development has approved between five million and 7.8 million recipients each month.
Around 15,000 asylum seekers also receive the SRD grant.
But the director of appeals for Social Development, John Mokoele, said thousands of appeals were being received each month, from those whose applications are rejected.
“There are still about one million appeals that we are now going to consider that relate to June, which we skipped as a result of the challenges that were there at the beginning when this process was started regarding adjudication.”
Mokoele said the tribunal hopes to clear the appeals backlog for September and October by the end of March.
-EWN
In other news – DJ Zinhle’s husband, Morda won’t attend AKA’s funeral – Here’s why
DJ Zinhle‘s husband, DJ and music producer Bongani Mohosana, will not be attending the memorial and funeral service of the late AKA, who shares a child with Zinhle. The information was revealed in a press statement by AKA’s family today, 14 February.
“We’d also like to acknowledge our extended family, the Mohosanas, for their unwavering support during this time, as Bongani Mohosana will be in absentia at the memorial and funeral due to observing cultural protocol,” said the statement. Learn More