SASSA queues and unspent R147 million for vacant posts, Digi Mart USA News: SASSA queues are reaching a new level of unmanageable due to agency reviews, according to readers of The South African. Money has been budgeted and posts are funded, but there are still no new hires, according to a written parliamentary reply from Social Development Minister Dina Pule.
Pule revealed this week that R147.2 million allocated to fill 228 vacancies has not been spent. The question was posed by EFF MP Paulnita Marais.
In her response, Pule gave several reasons for the delay: funded vacancies must first undergo a formal job evaluation, and head-office posts need consultation with the Department of Public Service and Administration.
A Critical Posts Committee under the CEO must also prioritise which jobs to fill first. Pule added that promoting someone internally simply creates another vacancy that needs filling.
Meanwhile, Western Cape Social Development Minister Wendy Kaizer-Philander (DA) visited a SASSA office in Mitchells Plain. She confirmed that the staffing pressures she saw “underscored the urgent need to fill funded vacancies without delay,” and she called for an urgent review of SASSA’s national recruitment strategy.
Because of tougher reviews by the South African Social Security Agency, more people are being pushed back into SASSA queues than would normally be the case. The agency itself revealed that 105,600 beneficiaries were placed under review in just three months, between April and June.
That amounts to 1,173 people per day, and 54% of these reviews ended in grant suspension.
Readers have described the strain. One reader, Alida, said getting to an office is a “heartbreaking” ordeal for older people.
Rita Cronje said she lost three days to her review, was told to go back, and still has a September 2026 SASSA grant unaccounted for.
