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Services Seta administrator Lehlogonolo Masoga/

Seta overhaul: new project management unit to tackle stipend delays, certification backlogs and weak delivery

The Services Seta has launched a new PMU aimed at improving governance, accelerating programme delivery and addressing delays in learner certification and stipend payments, as…

The expansion of social grants has been one of the most significant redistributive measures in democratic South Africa. Grants now support millions of children, older persons, and people with disabilities.
 (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Social Grants get R292.8bn boost

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has confirmed increases to social grants, including old-age, disability and child support, supporting 26.5 million South Africans amid high…

Road carnage: Twelve learners were killed when the scholar transport vehicle they were travelling in crashed into a truck in Vanderbijlpark in the
Vaal. Photo: Timothy Bernard / Independent Newspapers

SA binges on lawlessness, impunity

Transport Minister Barbara Creecy says South Africa’s tolerance for “just one drink” has become a licence for mass death

The technology’s unalterable digital trail would reduce fiscal leaks and prevent large-scale corruption draining the public purse. Photo: Supplied

How blockchain could end public sector fraud

The technology’s unalterable digital trail would reduce fiscal leaks and prevent large-scale corruption draining the public purse

The contents of a fridge where a man was rescued last week after he injured himself in a bad fall and became incapable of caring for himself. (Photo: Lyse Comins)

Abuse of senior citizens an unspoken shame in South Africa

Emigration, poverty and unemployment are contributing to the neglect, abandonment and economic abuse of senior citizens

Members of the ANC give testimony in Cape Town about human rights abuses committed during apartheid. (File photograph by Gallo Images/ Oryx Media Archive).

Three developments in January place unequal democracy back on the road to justice

The Expropriation Bill was signed into law; the families of victims of apartheid-era human rights violations want to know why the TRC recommendations haven’t been implemented,…

Social standing: Beneficiaries queue to collect grants in Alexandra. (File photo/MG)

Withdrawing SRD grant could save R36bn, but economists say it is here to stay

The grant budget is to be cut by R20 billion but it is unclear how the numbers will add up

Silent: Limpopo police commissioner Thembi Hadebe was told about fraudster Howard Mashaba’s harassment of a tenant. Photo: X/SAPS

Top cop ‘didn’t act against eviction’ by fraudster Howard Mashaba

The provincial police commissioner is the latest to be implicated in the fraudster’s contentious new hotel

The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) denies that there was anything exceptional about January’s payment run. But many people have complained to #PayTheGrants and Black Sash.

Many child support grant recipients left without money for January

Sassa spokesperson denies there is a problem, but officials speaking anonymously say otherwise

Hundreds of thousands of grant recipients will be affected by a decision to stop grant withdrawals at Post Office branches or cash paypoints. Illustration: Lisa Nelson

Sassa cash pay points to be phased out by April 2024

Black Sash predicts a ‘devastating’ effect on grant recipients in rural areas

Photo: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

Hunger strikes the heart of South Africa

Pleas for food assistance to aid groups from the malnourished are intensifying in cities and rural areas

Nombulelo Gladys Mbande, 55, who is responsible for the nursery at Sozama Pre-school in KwaNobuhle township, Kariega, plays with children outside the building. The school is located opposite a dumping site where residents throw rubbish, dead-dogs and nappies.

Child deaths reveal neglect of townships

The quality of life of poor South Africans over the past 30 years continues to be ignored

Large households were spending an average of R1 000 to R1 500 a month on food, the report said.

Sassa ‘technical glitch’ leaves pensioners cashless

The agency says the problem has been resolved and pensioners can access their money as normal

(Oupa Nkosi/M&G)

How Sars was ‘defrauded’ of R13.9 million by Chetty ‘crime’ family

The son allegedly declared zero income in 2021 despite raking in R29 million in state contracts

Home is where the HQ is: Salamina Khoza’s house is listed as the headquarters of businesses that received R4.6 million in fraudulent contracts from the South African Police Service. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Sassa pensioners allegedly assisted ‘corrupt’ Chetty family to defraud SAPS

Salamina Khoza and Sarathamoney Sigamoney are accused of fronting for companies that received nearly R150m in ‘fraudulent’ police contracts

The cheap and legal delivery of most grants can be achieved by simply using banks and ATMs.

Threshold for Covid-19 aid to rise, state to top up child support grants

The threshold to qualify for the R350 social relief of distress grant will be raised to R624 from the current R350, but the grant itself remains at R350.

Of the 4 983 households affected by the floods only 1 197 have been assessed and the majority are still living in mass-relief shelters. Photos: Delwyn Verasamy/M&G

Auditor General Tsakani Maluleke: State response to KZN floods too slow

Of the 4 983 households affected by the floods only 1 197 have been assessed and the majority are still living in mass-relief shelters

The number of SRD applications has been growing steadily since its introduction in 2020. The 17 million applications mark was passed three months ago, but the real story is that the number of grants approved has not grown in a long time.

How millions of ‘Mavis’ businesses fall through all the relief fund cracks

The energy conundrum affects everyone, but the implications for people like Mavis, who are trying to survive the pitfalls of the second economy, rarely get public space

Women’s league heavyweights such as Bathable Dlamini might not have any leeway to exert power and influence in the election of the new ANC leadership

Bathabile Dlamini lives to fight another day as the top six blink first

The ANC Women’s League president has said she is ready to continue leading the organisation

Especially egregious: In 2020, ordinary people donated food and sanitary products to fill a void left by the South African Social Security Agency’s bungling of aid distribution, for which it budgeted R45.5-million. This was beset by corruption and non-delivery, and for which it has yet to experience legal sanction. Photo: ER Lombard/Gallo Images

NPA fails to deal with R7.8bn in Covid-19 corruption

Not ‘trial ready’: 386 Special Investigating Unit referrals lead to just one case in court so far