The queue at the Mitchells Plain SASSA office stretches around the block, a familiar scene repeated across South Africa each month.
I’ve been standing here since 4:30 this morning, listening to the stories of those around me—pensioners, young mothers, disability grant recipients—all united by their dependence on the lifeline that SASSA grants provide.
“Every month it’s the same,” sighs Ntombi Khumalo, a 67-year-old grandmother of four who receives an older persons grant.
“You wake up when it’s still dark, bring your chair and your flask of tea, and wait.
But what choice do we have?”
Her question hangs in the air, unanswered but understood by everyone in the queue.
For almost 18 million South Africans—nearly one-third of the country’s population—SASSA (South African Social Security Agency) grants aren’t just financial assistance; they’re the difference between survival and destitution.
And as April approaches, bringing with it a new fiscal year and anticipated changes to grant structures and payment systems, anxiety among recipients is palpable.
April Payment Dates: What’s Changing and What Remains the Same
The most immediate concern for grant recipients is knowing exactly when their money will be available.
For April 2025, SASSA has announced that older persons grants and associated grants for disabilities will be paid first, beginning on the 3rd of April.
Child support grants, foster care grants, and care dependency grants will follow, with payments starting on the 5th of April.
The staggered payment approach continues from previous months, an attempt by SASSA to reduce the overwhelming pressure on payment points and banking infrastructure that occurred when all grants were paid simultaneously.
“The separate payment dates have helped reduce congestion,” explains Michael Sithole, a SASSA regional coordinator I interviewed at the Mitchells Plain office.
“Before we implemented this system, we would see dangerous overcrowding at ATMs and retail payment points on the first of each month.”
However, the system isn’t without its critics.
“It’s confusing for people who receive multiple grants,” points out community activist Precious Ndlovu, who helps grant recipients in Khayelitsha navigate the system.
“If you’re a grandmother receiving an older person’s grant for yourself and child support grants for your grandchildren, you now have to make two separate trips to collect your money.”
For those living in rural areas, where transportation is both expensive and unreliable, this split payment schedule can create significant hardship.
“I spend R80 on a round trip to town,” says Lindiwe Mabaso, who receives both a disability grant and a child support grant for her daughter.
“Now I must make this trip twice in one week.
That’s money that should be feeding my family.”
Grant Amounts: Increases and Expectations
April brings with it the annual adjustment to grant amounts, a change eagerly anticipated by recipients struggling to keep up with South Africa’s rising cost of living.
For the 2025/26 financial year, the government has announced increases across all grant categories, though advocates argue these adjustments fail to keep pace with inflation, particularly food inflation which disproportionately affects low-income households.
The older persons grant will increase to R2,190 per month for those over 60, and R2,210 for those over 75, representing a 5% increase from the previous year.
Disability grants will see a similar adjustment, rising to R2,190.
Child support grants, which reach the greatest number of beneficiaries—approximately 13 million children—will increase to R540 per month, while foster care grants will rise to R1,180.
“These increases are critically important but still insufficient,” argues economist Dr. Mamello Nchake, who specializes in social protection systems.
“When you consider that the food poverty line in South Africa is now above R760 per person per month, a child support grant of R540 simply doesn’t cover basic nutritional needs, let alone other essentials.”
The harsh reality of this insufficiency is evident in the stories of recipients like Gloria Xaba, a 32-year-old single mother of three I met outside the SASSA office.
“Each month, I must decide: do I buy enough food, or do I pay for electricity and school transportation?” she explains.
“There is never enough to cover everything, so we are always sacrificing something.”
Yet despite their inadequacy, the grants remain an indispensable support system, particularly in rural areas and townships where formal employment opportunities are scarce.
Research consistently shows that SASSA grants are often the only reliable income for entire households, with a single grant sometimes supporting extended families of 8-10 people.
Verification Processes and Challenges
April also brings renewed emphasis on verification processes as SASSA continues efforts to eliminate fraud and ensure grants reach legitimate beneficiaries.
The agency has announced intensified life verification checks for older persons and disability grant recipients, requiring biometric verification at SASSA offices or designated points.
For those physically unable to visit offices, home visits can be arranged, though the system for requesting these visits remains cumbersome and often unreliable.
“The verification process is necessary but often traumatic for vulnerable recipients,” says social worker Thandi Mhlongo, who works with disability grant recipients in KwaZulu-Natal.
“I’ve seen elderly people with severe mobility issues forced to sit for hours in uncomfortable conditions, just to prove they’re still alive.”
The verification process for child support grants has also been strengthened, with increased cross-checking between SASSA databases and school enrollment records.
Parents or primary caregivers who cannot provide proof of school enrollment risk having grants suspended—a measure intended to ensure children’s educational rights but which can create significant hardship for families navigating complex circumstances.
“My grandson’s school burned down during the protests last year,” explains Miriam Tsotetsi, 61, from Orange Farm.
“He was placed in a temporary learning center, but they don’t have proper systems to provide the documentation SASSA wants.”
After three months of suspended payments and countless visits to both school administrators and SASSA offices, Miriam finally had the grant reinstated, but the family had accumulated debt just to survive during this period.
These stories highlight the tension between necessary accountability measures and the lived realities of grant recipients, many of whom lack the resources, information, or support systems to navigate bureaucratic processes designed without their circumstances in mind.
The SRD Grant: Uncertainty Continues
Perhaps the most contentious aspect of the April SASSA landscape is the future of the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, initially introduced as a temporary measure during the COVID-19 pandemic but since extended multiple times due to ongoing economic hardship.
The R350 monthly payment, while modest, has become a crucial support for unemployed adults who previously fell outside the social grant system.
Currently reaching approximately 7.5 million South Africans, the SRD grant’s future remains uncertain, with government communications suggesting another extension but no permanent solution yet implemented.
“The SRD grant demonstrates both the need for and feasibility of a basic income support for working-age adults,” argues Isobel Frye, director of the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute.
“April should have seen the transition from this temporary measure to a permanent basic income grant, but political will seems to be wavering despite overwhelming evidence of its necessity.”
For recipients like Siyabonga Ndlela, a 29-year-old from Soweto with a technical diploma but no formal employment, the uncertainty creates profound anxiety.
“Every few months, we don’t know if the grant will continue,” he tells me outside a Postbank ATM after checking if his March payment had arrived yet.
“How can you plan your life when you don’t know if the little income you have will disappear completely?”
The SRD grant, despite its modest amount, has been shown to play a significant role in job-seeking activities, with recipients using the funds for transportation to interviews, internet access for job applications, and basic necessities that allow them to maintain the dignity necessary to pursue employment opportunities.
Digital Payment Systems: Progress and Pitfalls
April 2025 also marks an important milestone in SASSA’s ongoing effort to modernize payment systems, with an increased push toward digital payments and reduced reliance on cash disbursements.
While this shift promises greater efficiency and security in the long term, the transition continues to create significant challenges for many recipients, particularly those in rural areas and older persons unfamiliar with digital technologies.
“The push toward digital payments assumes access to infrastructure that simply doesn’t exist in many communities,” explains digital rights advocate Nompumelelo Sepeng.
“When you haven’t got reliable electricity, network coverage, or accessible ATMs, a card-based or mobile payment might as well be on the moon.”
The challenges extend beyond infrastructure to include the digital literacy required to safely navigate these systems.
Reports of fraud targeting grant recipients have increased as more payments move to digital platforms, with vulnerable recipients often falling victim to scams that promise to “help” them access their money.
“My neighbor lost her entire pension to scammers,” recounts Josephine Radebe, 72, from Soshanguve.
“They told her she needed to provide her PIN to verify her account for the April payment.
She didn’t know any better.”
SASSA has responded with education campaigns and increased security measures, but the gap between the system’s design and the realities of many recipients’ lives remains substantial.
The agency’s recent partnership with local community organizations to provide digital literacy support represents an acknowledgment of this challenge, though the program’s reach remains limited compared to the need.
The Human Impact: Beyond Statistics
While policymakers and economists debate the fiscal implications of South Africa’s extensive social grant system, the human impact of these payments transcends numerical analysis.
In the Eastern Cape’s rural communities, where I spent time speaking with recipients preparing for the April payment cycle, the grants represent not just financial support but dignity and autonomy in circumstances where both are often in short supply.
“Before I received the older person’s grant, I had to ask my children for every cent,” explains 68-year-old Noluthando Mcinga from a small village outside Mthatha.
“Now I can contribute to the household, buy small treats for my grandchildren, and even save a little each month for our traditional ceremonies.”
The psychological benefit of this autonomy is immeasurable, particularly for generations who experienced the systematic disempowerment of apartheid and continue to face structural barriers to economic inclusion.
For younger recipients, particularly those receiving child support grants, the monthly payments enable crucial investments in their children’s futures.
“Every cent of my children’s grants goes directly to building their opportunities,” says Nomvula Zwane, a 36-year-old mother of two from Thembisa.
“School supplies, extra learning materials, better nutrition—these are investments in breaking the cycle of poverty.”
Research supports Nomvula’s approach, with studies consistently showing that child support grants lead to improved educational outcomes, better nutrition, and enhanced health indicators when they reach female primary caregivers.
Looking Beyond April: The Future of Social Protection
As South Africa prepares for the April payment cycle, broader questions about the future of the country’s social protection system loom large.
The current grant structure, while extensive, fails to address significant gaps, particularly for working-age adults who are neither disabled nor primary caregivers.
The temporary extension of the SRD grant has highlighted this gap, with growing calls for its transformation into a permanent basic income support.
“April should be seen not just as another payment month but as an opportunity for reflection on how our social protection system must evolve,” suggests social policy researcher Dr. Bathabile Mthombeni.
“The evidence is clear that grants are not creating dependency but rather providing the minimal security people need to improve their circumstances.”
This perspective is echoed by many recipients I spoke with, who view grants not as an endpoint but as a necessary foundation from which to build better lives in a country where formal employment remains inaccessible to millions despite their best efforts.
“The grant is what allows me to volunteer at the community center, improving my skills while I continue looking for formal work,” explains Thabo Mbeki, a 26-year-old SRD recipient from Katlehong.
“Without it, I’d be focused solely on day-to-day survival, with no capacity to develop myself or contribute to my community.”
The April Payment Cycle as Microcosm
As April approaches, the SASSA payment cycle represents a microcosm of South Africa’s broader socioeconomic challenges and resilience.
The queues that will form at payment points across the country tell stories not just of dependency but of a society attempting to address historical injustices and ongoing structural inequalities through direct support to its most vulnerable citizens.
For recipients, April brings both the relief of continued support and the anxiety of navigating systems not always designed with their needs in mind.
For policymakers, it presents another opportunity to witness both the successes and limitations of Africa’s most extensive social grant system.
And for South African society as a whole, it serves as a monthly reminder of both the country’s deep inequalities and its constitutional commitment to progressively realize the social and economic rights of all citizens.
As Ntombi Khumalo, the grandmother I met in the Mitchells Plain queue, puts it: “The grant is not charity.
It is recognition that we matter, that our contributions to building this country—even when they didn’t pay us properly for our work—deserve some acknowledgment in our time of need.”
Her words capture the essence of what SASSA grants represent beyond their monetary value: a social contract between state and citizen, an acknowledgment of shared responsibility, and a commitment to ensuring that no South African is left entirely without means in a country still working to fulfill its democratic promise.
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