Treasury’s TARS unearths R200m in SASSA grant irregularities as probe expands

National Treasury’s targeted savings programme has uncovered large-scale irregularities in South Africa’s social grant system, identifying R200 million in fraudulent or incorrect payments and flagging hundreds of thousands of suspect accounts.

What the Treasury found

The programme, called Targeted and Responsible Savings or TARS, was launched in mid-2025. Its work on the South African Social Security Agency has involved large-scale data checks: six million bank accounts analysed and eight million credit bureau checks completed. That process has flagged 291,581 beneficiaries for review.

From those reviews, TARS has led to adjustments on 8,599 Disability and Old-Age grants, and 34,661 grants cancelled. The cancellations generated R36.4 million in savings for the taxpayer. Separately, Treasury says it has identified and stopped R200 million in fraudulent or incorrect payments since last year.

SASSA’s scale and long-running problems

The South African Social Security Agency administers R292.8 billion in social grants annually, supporting what the source describes as tens of millions of the country’s neediest people, including pensioners and parents of young children.

The system has faced persistent fraud and security issues. The article recalls a 2024 incident in which two university students demonstrated that SASSA’s R370 SRD portal contained security gaps that allowed criminals to apply for and receive grants using the ID numbers of legitimate citizens, locking real people out while fraudsters collected in their name.

Political fallout and wider Treasury targets

SASSA maladministration was a factor in the dismissal of Social Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe in May 2026. The source says Sindisiwe Chikunga has been appointed acting minister pending a permanent replacement.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has set a broader target of R6.7 billion in savings to be identified across underperforming government programmes. So far, TARS has been applied to SASSA and the public transport network.

What comes next

The Treasury’s data-led approach has produced measurable recoveries and cancellations, but in the context of a R292.8 billion grants system the figures recovered so far remain a small fraction of total spending. The flagged cases will require further review to determine final outcomes for individual beneficiaries and any additional savings.