To: President Cyril Ramaphosa

President Ramaphosa, stop cutting people off social grants!

Dear President Cyril Ramaphosa,

President Ramaphosa, people are going hungry because social grants are not being paid. You promised you would fix social grants and introduce a Basic Income Grant, but by not acting, you are allowing the Social Development Minister and Finance Minister to destroy people's lives.  

We call on you to act and protect the marginalised majority by defending social grants:

  • Stop National Treasury, Sassa and DSD from using unconstitutional R370 SRD grant regulations on all other social grants. 

Furthermore, we call on you to:

  • Hold the Social Development Minister accountable for allowing Sassa to continue failing to respond to recipients and answer phone calls, and mistreating beneficiaries by making them jump through hoops to get social grants. 
  • Fix the R370 grant and increase it to match the Food Poverty Line of R796.
  • The Pretoria High Court ruled that the SRD grant regulations are unconstitutional. We call on you to ensure that the Treasury, DSD and Sassa adhere to the court ruling and reinstate the SRD for the 10 million people who were unfairly excluded. Treasury, DSD and Sassa should stop wasting money and time and abandon their planned appeal of the high court ruling. 
  • Extend the R370 SRD grant until it is turned into a Basic Income Grant of R1 634 in line with the Upper Bound poverty line, for those with little to no income aged 18 - 59.

We call on you to take the side of the marginalised majority. For far too long, our people have suffered from hunger and poverty.


Why is this important?

Beneficiaries of the old age grant, child support grant, disability grant, and care dependency grant are being unfairly punished for Sassa’s incompetence in ensuring that the social grants system works as it should. 
 
Since 2022, social grant beneficiaries have experienced various issues getting their grants, from system glitches to delayed payments [1] that left beneficiaries stranded. More recently, Sassa released a number of media statements stating that some beneficiaries would need to undergo biometric tests for identity verification [2] and later that grants for over 210,000 people would be delayed in June 2025 [3]. 

Sassa also claimed to have contacted beneficiaries who would need to present themselves at their offices for identity verification. However, some recipients who have experienced difficulties have not received any form of communication from Sassa. Sassa continues to be unreachable and provide confusing, inaccessible information. They continue ignoring emails asking for clarity and do not take phone calls.

Now, the National Treasury has ordered Sassa to use the unfair and exclusionary SRD grant regulations on the social grants system [4]. Taking lessons from the SRD grant regulations, we know that many people have been unfairly denied the grant because they received small amounts of money from friends and family members, which Sassa would then classify as a ‘source of income’. The current qualifying threshold for the grant is R624, but even if a person receives a lesser amount in their bank accounts, they still get declined for the grant for that month. 

In January 2025, the Pretoria High Court ruled the regulations unconstitutional and invalid in a court case brought by the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) and #PayTheGrants [5]. If the SRD regulations are used on the social grants system, many people will be kicked off grants, even if they qualify.

Social grants will remain a necessity for as long as our people continue to suffer in poverty. Join the campaign to demand dignified lives for those who cannot access economic opportunities and support themselves and their families.


[1] Sassa payment problems fixed, Postbank says, Garth Theunissen for Business Day, 7 November 2025.

[2] Mandatory biometric verification for Sassa clients without standard ID numbers, Shonisani Tshikalange for TimesLive, 29 April 2025.

[3] Over 200,000 social grant beneficiaries flagged for fraud by SASSA, June payments delayed, Simon Majadibodu for IOL, 2 June 2025.

[4] Budget: Changes ahead for R370-a-month SRD grant, Marecia Damons for GroundUp, 21 May 2025.

[5] Explosive court ruling on SRD grant, Marecia Damons for GroundUp, 24 January 2025.

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