25 000 KwaZulu-Natal grants to be cancelled

Around 25 000 social security grants are to be cancelled in KwaZulu-Natal after a forensic audit showed the recipients did not qualify for the grant. These include more than 18 000 child support grants and close to 7 000 disability grants.

Thousands of recipients will have to pay the grants back to the state and others will be prosecuted for fraud. Nyanga Ngubane, the KwaZulu-Natal social welfare MEC, says 221 social grants have already been cancelled, resulting in a saving of more than R40 million a month for the department.

The forensic report by the Durban-based Sihlangene Consortium has been handed to the Special Investigations Unit. It found that there has been a lack of adequate supervision of social grants at the local level.