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Lindiwe Zulu, the minister of social development, has suggested increasing the income requirement for SRD applicants from R350 to R624. The general public has until July 29 to offer comments.

Since the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) approved her R350 grant applications a few months ago, Ntombi Kwaza, 34, has not received payment. For Kwaza and hundreds of other people like her, the Department of Social Development has proposed raising the monthly income criterion for Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grants from R350 to R624.

When Kwaza filed for the SRD grant in August 2021 and November 2021, she claimed that SASSA “detected a source of income.” Kwaza is from the North West province’s Klerksdorp. When she appealed this decision, she discovered that all four months had been granted in May of this year.

She is still waiting for payments for accepted appeals from the prior year despite SASSA’s announcement that they would be made in June. They’re torturing us, I say. I was very pleased and even started dancing when they told me I had been accepted. I simply feel like giving up right now,” she admitted.

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Her boyfriend, three children, two younger siblings who are still in high school, and Kwaza all reside with her. She has been unemployed for four years. She relies on the R480 in child support handouts for her 10-year-old and 7-month-old kids.

SOCIAL GRANTS