As part of the Social Development’s response to the COVID - 19 pandemic, the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) has to date paid the Special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant of R350 to over 3 million eligible beneficiaries. This was revealed today as the Department and its agencies briefed the Portfolio Committee on their revised Annual Performance Plan (APP) for 2020/2021-2022/2023.

The Department and its entities had to revise their APPs in order to improve the sector’s response to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.

Led by the Deputy Minister of Social Development, Ms Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, the Department announced that it has repriotised its funds within the current budget to cushion and to meet the immediate needs of the most vulnerable against the socio- economic impact of the global pandemic. This includes reduced spending on travelling, medical assessment fees, leases, venues and facilities as some projects have come to a halt due to the state of national disaster regulations to contain the spread of the virus.

The Department informed the Committee that non-critical posts for both SASSA and NDA will not be filled during the current financial year as the funds will be shifted towards helping South Africans as they grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Department also revealed among other things that it had to substantially increase access to food relief from an initial 1.1 million to 3.3 million to ensure food security for individuals and families impacted negatively by the national lockdown.

The Department highlighted that the Special COVID-19 SRD Grant will be paid for 6 months, but the demand for income support for the unemployed and those who have lost their jobs will go beyond this period. To address this, the Department is working on policy proposal on the feasibility of an income support to South Africans between the ages of 18-59 who have no income support. This is a result of the introduction of the Special COVID-19 SRD grant that has revived the discussion of the feasibility of a Basic Income Grant (BIG) as was recommended by the Taylor Report in 2002.

This proposal is in line with the comprehensive social protection system envisioned in the National Development Plan (Vision 2030).

The Department further reported that it will develop a database of Early Childhood Development programmes. This database will capture all ECD information, including identifying all ECDs that require support in order to realise registration.

Social protection continues to be at the centre of South Africa’s socio-economic response to the pandemic. In this regard SASSA reported that the advent of COVID- 19 has forced it to expedite the process of using emerging technologies to moderniseand transform its operations such as the introduction of electronic and online channels.