Cape Town, 23 January 2025
South Africa’s Minister of Social Development, Nokuzola Sisisi Tolashe, has reaffirmed her commitment to improving the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) services. Addressing senior SASSA managers during a strategic planning session held in Cape Town on 21 January 2025, Minister Tolashe outlined key priorities and pledged support for social grant beneficiaries.
Minister Tolashe congratulated the 572,338 social grant beneficiaries who excelled in the 2024 National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams. These learners, who made up 81% of the 724,156 registered full-time matriculants, achieved an impressive 86% pass rate.
“This indicates that the investment government is making in the lives of poor and vulnerable children is yielding positive impacts in breaking intergenerational poverty,” said Minister Tolashe.
The Minister outlined her plan to address critical challenges facing SASSA and improve the agency’s effectiveness:
- Permanent Leadership Appointments
- Minister Tolashe committed to urgently addressing the lack of permanent leadership and resolving staffing shortages in local SASSA offices.
- Community Outreach
- Underserved communities remain a top priority. The Minister stressed the importance of intensifying community-based engagements to bring SASSA services closer to vulnerable populations.
- “Our community is waiting for our immense intensification of community outreach where we prioritize underserved areas to bring services closer to our people,” she emphasized.
- Modernizing Systems
- Acknowledging existing system inefficiencies, Minister Tolashe urged SASSA management to focus on modernizing systems for better accessibility, streamlined queue management, and fraud prevention.
- Improving Payment Channels in Rural Areas
- The Minister tasked Acting SASSA CEO, Themba Matlou, with devising a plan to resolve challenges with payment channels in rural areas by developing alternative solutions for grant payments.
In her closing remarks, Minister Tolashe emphasized the importance of teamwork and collaboration between the Ministry of Social Development and SASSA leadership to tackle challenges effectively.
“We commit ourselves to work with you as Minister and Deputy Minister of Social Development. We are available at all times to address the challenges together. We all need to be solution-driven in our course to make changes to the lives of our people through concerted efforts,” she concluded.
