The Department of Social Development (DSD) has found that thousands of people who qualified for the social relief of distress grants, set at R350 per month, missed out due to the applying model used.
Majority of the poor cohort that missed out on the grant were in rural communities, Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said. Less tech-savvy, they battled to apply using cellphones.
“Communication about access, application process and criteria as this was misunderstood by those in need and this area requires improvement,” said Zulu in a reply to written Parliamentary questions.
“The beneficiaries of the Special R350 Covid-19 grant are most likely in rural areas, less educated, less tech-savvy, and heavily reliant on word of mouth communication.
“Reach was subsequently hindered as those that qualified did not have the means and/or knowledge of how to apply.”
These findings were made in a departmental study that looked at the implementation and utilisation of the special R350 Covid-19 grant.
Applications were done via the South African Social Security Agency website and Whatsapp.
Zulu said the findings illustrated that there “a strong need to find ways to mitigate and bridge the digital divide in the administration of social security”.
“This is supported by the majority of the respondents (88%) who maintain that the grant should be accessed by all poor individuals that apply as there are many poor people in South Africa,” she added.
The R350 grants were introduced following the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020.
A new cycle of applications that commenced on 23 April 2022 received applications from more than 9.7 million individuals.
There have been calls that the grant should be made permanent, increased and turned into a basic income support.
Zulu said the novel virus increased the number of people living below the food poverty line in South Africa.
As a result, DSD provided food parcels to 1.2 million more households than it initially targeted.
“The number of people accessing nutritious foods through DSD Food Programmes increased to 9 244 072 and 2 264 325 households, whilst the target set was 3 300 000 people and 1 million households,” said Zulu.
“South Africa has experienced an increase in the levels of food insecurity and vulnerability during this pandemic and the necessary lock-down to prevent the spread of the virus.
“Prior to lock-down the percentage of households with inadequate access to food was at 20.2% (3 347 342 people) in 2018.”
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