The Portfolio Committee on Science, Innovation and Technology has known as for the pressing use of science and expertise to resolve ongoing challenges affecting the fee of social grants.
Speaking throughout a Social Services Cluster media briefing in Parliament, committee Chairperson Ms Lusizo Makhubela emphasised that South Africa has the experience and institutional capability to handle technical inefficiencies that proceed to disrupt service supply to grant beneficiaries.
She mentioned authorities should strengthen collaboration with entities similar to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research to develop dependable, safe and environment friendly digital programs that help the administration of social grants.
South Africa’s social safety system, one in all the largest on the continent, has lately confronted difficulties linked to information migration and digital coordination. Ms Makhubela famous that these challenges might be addressed via higher integration of expertise and innovation.
“Digitisation has the potential to transform the delivery of social grants, but this opportunity has not yet been fully realised,” she mentioned. “The country has advanced scientific capabilities that must be utilised to ensure that systems function effectively and without disruption.”
The committee pressured that improved coordination between authorities departments, analysis establishments and expertise companions is crucial to keep away from fragmented implementation and to maximise the affect of digital options.
Ms Makhubela additionally highlighted the significance of guaranteeing that transitions inside the system, together with the migration from SASSA’s yellow playing cards to Postbank black playing cards, are managed in a way that doesn’t drawback beneficiaries.
She known as on the CSIR to play a number one function in growing fashionable, regionally pushed options, together with safe biometric programs that may enhance accuracy and safeguard public funds. She additionally reiterated {that a} extra coordinated and innovation-driven method is crucial to strengthening service supply and defending the integrity of the social grant system.
Sibongile Maputi
26 May 2026