The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) says the
R350 COVID-19 grant payment for March will only be paid out in April.
Some six million recipients are yet to receive their R350
temporary COVID-19 grant for the month of March.
According to SASSA spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi, the delay
is due to the transition in government financial years.
“The end of March is the end of the financial year for
government and various administrative tasks are required before any payments
which relate to the previous financial year can be made. When we got the
instruction to continue with paying the R350, we were given the mandate to wrap
up in January.
“In January we wrapped up everything, because we were
supposed to submit a report to cabinet in terms of how we distributed the R350.
When the extension was given, we had to start from scratch, open up the systems
and make sure everyone gets paid,” Letsatsi explained.
He said that SASSA is currently busy with these end of
financial year tasks which has delayed payment.
The temporary relief grant was announced by President Cyril
Ramaphosa last year after economic impact caused by the pandemic during the
lockdown, which led to losses cuts.
Letsatsi said payments for both March and April will now be
made at the end of April, adding that a total of 86 363 new applications were
received for February.
He said that recipients will receive notifications for the
payment.
