Contact UsSASSA re-registration kicks-off
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RedditThe South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) has kicked off its re-registration process, as it aims to root out corruption in the social grants system.
The agency is re-registering all social grant beneficiaries in two stages. The first stage starts today and will provide Sekulula clients and new approved applicants with a temporary SASSA branded biometric magstripe card.
“We at SASSA encourage Sekulula cardholders to re-register from 1 March 2012 to 25 March 2012. This will go a long way in ensuring that come 1 April 2012, when a new service provider for the payment of social grants comes on board, that beneficiaries still receive their grants their grants without any interruption to service delivery,” says Virginia Petersen, SASSA CEO.
The second stage will start on 1 June 2012 and beneficiaries will be provided with a permanent SASSA branded biometric magstripe during this phase.
“The Sekulula beneficiaries must bring along South African bar-coded identity document and their current Sekulula card to registration sites. We will then swap their Sekulula card with a SASSA branded smart card after taking their 1-finger biometric,” explained Petersen.
The agency – which recently appointed Cash Paymaster Services as the new contractor for the payment of social grants – currently provides social grants to about 15.3 million South Africans, 10.3 million of whom are children.
The contract with CPS will run over a period of five years at a cost of approximately R10 billion, distributing grants to the value of approximately R500 billion over the same period (i.e. at approximately 2% cost).
SASSA, which has set a 2014 deadline for the automation of its application, payment, and beneficiary maintenance processes, says the contract would lead to savings of over R3 billion over five years.
In its 2010/11 annual report, the agency revealed that it will focus on developing an automated end-to-end solution between 2012 and 2014.
The solution will include direct single capture information; biometric access for applicants and beneficiaries to process: an electronic (virtual) registry and online interfaces to external databases for validation of information.
