South Africa: Flawed Sassa Grant Algorithms Deepen Inequality and Violate Constitutional Rights

What the report says

A Daily Maverick report, carried by AllAfrica, says South Africa’s Social Security Agency (Sassa) is using a fully digital, automated verification process for the Social Relief of Distress grant that is wrongly screening out some applicants. The article says the system can treat money received in a bank account as evidence of income without considering the context, which can disadvantage people with irregular or informal livelihoods.

The piece uses a funeral-related example to show how temporary funds from family or friends can lead to a rejection even when the applicant remains unemployed and financially vulnerable. According to the report, applicants are not given a meaningful chance to explain those transactions before the system decides whether they qualify.

The concern is broader than one rejected application: the report argues that a digital-only approach may deepen inequality by making access to emergency support depend on bank data rather than a fuller assessment of need. In the South African context, that matters because the SRD grant is intended as a safety net for people with little or no income, including many who work outside formal payroll systems. The article frames the issue as both an administrative problem and a rights question, raising pressure on Sassa to add human review or other safeguards.