The morning air carries a slight chill as I arrive at the Mamelodi community hall just outside Pretoria. It’s not yet 7:00 AM, but already a queue of elderly South Africans snakes around the building. Some sit on plastic chairs they’ve brought from home; others stand patiently, exchanging quiet conversation. Many have been here since 5:00 AM, though the SASSA officials won’t arrive for another two hours.
“This is actually better than before,” chuckles Florence Nkosi, a 76-year-old grandmother who has invited me to accompany her today. “Two years ago, we would sleep here overnight. Now with the new appointment system, at least we know we’ll be seen eventually.”
Florence, like millions of South African seniors, relies on the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) old age grant to survive. As March 2025 approaches, she and other pensioners across the country are preparing for the latest payment cycle, navigating recent changes to the system, and adapting to the newly announced grant amounts that will take effect next month.
The New Payment Amount: Adjusting to Economic Realities
The Department of Social Development has confirmed that the SASSA old age grant will increase to R2,220 for pensioners aged 60 to 74 and R2,240 for those aged 75 and older, effective from the March 2025 payment cycle. This represents a 4.8% increase from the previous year—a figure that has generated mixed reactions among recipients.
“It’s better than nothing,” Florence says pragmatically as we move forward slightly in the queue. “But have you bought bread lately? Cooking oil? Electricity? Everything goes up faster than our grants.”
Her sentiment is echoed by many pensioners I speak with. The increase, while welcome, falls short of South Africa’s current inflation rate of 5.7%, effectively representing a decrease in purchasing power for those who depend entirely on the grant for survival.
Economist Dr. Thabo Molefi from the University of Cape Town explains the challenging balancing act the government faces: “The fiscal constraints are real. With tax revenue under pressure and competing priorities like education and healthcare, significant grant increases are difficult to implement. Yet these payments remain the most effective poverty alleviation tool we have, particularly for the elderly.”
For individual pensioners, these macroeconomic considerations provide little comfort. The daily realities of stretching the grant to cover basic necessities require increasingly creative budgeting.
“I share a house with my daughter and grandchildren,” explains Joseph Mbeki, a 68-year-old former mine worker I meet further along in the queue. “My grant pays for electricity for the whole family and school transport for my grandchildren. After that, there’s barely enough for my blood pressure medication that’s often out of stock at the clinic. This increase might cover one extra taxi trip to the doctor each month—nothing more.”
Collection Procedures: Evolving Systems
The March 2025 payment cycle will also see the continuation of SASSA’s staggered payment approach, introduced in late 2024 to reduce congestion at collection points. Under this system, older persons’ grants are paid first (on the 3rd of each month), followed by disability grants (4th), child support and other grants (5th).
Additionally, SASSA has expanded its payment channels to include:
- Direct bank deposits for recipients with bank accounts
- SASSA gold card withdrawals at ATMs and participating retailers
- Mobile money transfers through partnerships with telecommunications companies
- Biometric cash disbursements at designated payment points
- The newly implemented digital wallet system
“The multiple channels have helped somewhat,” notes social development researcher Nomsa Dlamini, who has studied SASSA’s implementation challenges for over a decade. “But each system comes with its own complications. Banking fees eat into the grant amount. Mobile money requires digital literacy. And the traditional cash payment points still see overcrowding, particularly in rural areas.”
These observations are confirmed by my experiences accompanying different pensioners throughout the payment cycle. At a shopping center in Soweto, I watch as 82-year-old Gogo Mahlati attempts to use the SASSA gold card at an ATM, only to be met with an “insufficient funds” message despite it being the correct payment day.
“This happens almost every month,” sighs her granddaughter, who has taken the morning off work to assist. “We’ll try three or four ATMs, then go inside the bank where they’ll tell us to wait for the system to update. Sometimes the money only reflects in the afternoon. Meanwhile, we’ve spent money on transport coming here.”
The frustration is palpable, a reminder that even as systems modernize, implementation gaps continue to create hardships for the most vulnerable.
Eligibility Criteria: Important Changes for 2025
For seniors preparing for the March 2025 payment cycle, understanding the updated eligibility requirements is crucial. SASSA has implemented several changes that will affect both current and prospective beneficiaries.
To qualify for the old age grant, applicants must:
- Be a South African citizen, permanent resident, or refugee
- Reside in South Africa
- Be 60 years or older
- Not receive any other social grant
- Not be maintained in a state institution
- Have an income and assets below the threshold (now adjusted to R111,000 annually for single applicants and R222,000 for married couples)
- Submit to the new biometric verification process
The asset threshold adjustment represents a 5% increase from 2024, a change that acknowledges the effects of inflation on savings and property values. However, the new mandatory biometric verification process has created complications for some recipients.
“My fingerprints don’t read well anymore,” explains Thomas Sithole, a 73-year-old former carpenter whose hands show the marks of decades of manual labor. “Last month, I had to come three times before they could verify me through the alternative facial recognition. Each trip costs taxi fare I can’t afford to waste.”
SASSA officials have acknowledged these challenges and implemented a fallback verification protocol using a combination of facial recognition and one-time PIN codes sent to registered mobile numbers. However, this system assumes access to functioning mobile phones—an assumption that doesn’t always hold true for the poorest pensioners.
Life on the Grant: Managing Month to Month
Understanding the impact of the SASSA old age grant requires looking beyond payment mechanics to the lived experiences of recipients. How do seniors actually survive on R2,220 per month in 2025 South Africa?
Back at Florence’s modest two-room home in Mamelodi East, she shows me her budgeting system. On the wall hangs a handwritten chart dividing her monthly grant into precise allocations: rent for her small room (R700), electricity (R450), burial society contribution (R100), church offering (R50), basic food staples (R500), transportation (R200), and savings for emergencies and her grandchildren’s school needs (R200).
“What about medical expenses?” I ask, noticing their absence from the chart.
“I pray not to get sick,” she responds with a wry smile. “If I need medicine not available at the clinic, I must take it from the emergency money or borrow from my savings group. There’s no other way.”
Florence’s careful accounting is common among pensioners I visit. In Khayelitsha, Cape Town, 65-year-old Miriam Ndlovu shows me a similar system, though with different pressures. As the sole income provider for her HIV-positive daughter and two grandchildren, her grant must stretch even further.
“The child support grants help, but they’re so small,” she explains while preparing a simple lunch of pap and cabbage that must feed four people. “School uniforms, books, clinic transport for my daughter—it all falls to me. Sometimes we eat once a day so the children can have proper school shoes.”
These daily compromises represent the hidden reality behind the statistics. While the grant provides crucial support, it rarely allows recipients to escape difficult trade-offs between equally important necessities.
Community Support Systems: Beyond Government Assistance
One striking feature of my conversations with pensioners is the elaborate community support networks they’ve developed to supplement the limitations of the SASSA grant. These systems rarely appear in official discussions about social security but prove essential to recipients’ survival.
In Orange Farm south of Johannesburg, I visit a “stokvel” (savings club) comprised entirely of SASSA pensioners. Each month, the fifteen members contribute R100 from their grants to a communal fund. This money rotates to a different member each month, providing a crucial lump sum of R1,500 that enables larger purchases or investments impossible to manage from the monthly grant alone.
“Last year when my roof leaked, the stokvel saved me,” explains the group’s treasurer, 68-year-old Margaret Zungu. “The month I received the payout, I could buy proper materials and pay a neighbor’s son to fix it properly. Without this system, I would have used plastic sheeting until the next rain.”
Other community mechanisms include food gardens shared among pensioners, childcare exchanges that allow grandparents to attend medical appointments while others watch their grandchildren, and knowledge sharing about which clinics have specific medications in stock or which shops offer pensioner discounts on particular days.
These networks demonstrate remarkable resilience and ingenuity, utilizing the social capital within communities to stretch limited financial resources. However, they also highlight the insufficiency of the grant alone to meet basic needs.
The Bureaucratic Challenge: Navigating SASSA’s Systems
For many pensioners, interacting with SASSA’s bureaucracy represents one of the most stressful aspects of relying on the grant. The complexity of the system, frequent policy changes, and administrative errors can create significant anxiety, particularly for those with limited formal education.
In the Eastern Cape’s rural Mbizana area, I observe an unofficial but critical support system: younger community members who help pensioners interpret SASSA communications and complete required paperwork. Outside the local SASSA office, 28-year-old unemployed university graduate Siyabonga Mbatha volunteers three days weekly to assist elderly neighbors.
“Many older people here never had the opportunity for education under apartheid,” he explains while helping a pensioner complete a life certification form. “They can’t read the English or Afrikaans forms, don’t understand the technical language, and feel intimidated by government officials. I help translate not just the words but the concepts.”
During my observation, Siyabonga assists seventeen pensioners in a single morning, preventing potential payment interruptions that could have devastating consequences. His informal service highlights a significant gap in the official system—the need for accessible support in navigating bureaucratic requirements.
SASSA has attempted to address this through its call center and the recent introduction of a WhatsApp support line. However, both assume technological access and comfort that many older South Africans, particularly in rural areas, don’t possess. The resulting reliance on community intermediaries creates both valuable support networks and potential vulnerabilities to misinformation or exploitation.
Healthcare Interfaces: A Critical Concern
As March 2025 approaches, many pensioners express particular concern about the interface between the grant payment system and their healthcare needs. With South Africa’s public healthcare system under strain, the grant often must stretch to cover medical expenses theoretically provided for separately.
“The clinic gives me only half my diabetes medication each month,” says 66-year-old David Mokoena from Bloemfontein. “They say supply shortages. What choice do I have? I must use the grant to buy the rest from a private pharmacy at four times the price.”
This experience reflects a common challenge where various government services fail to align effectively. While healthcare is nominally free for pensioners at public facilities, stock-outs, transport costs to reach facilities, and long waiting times create hidden expenses that erode the value of the grant.
The March 2025 payment will coincide with the continued phased implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI), which promises to address some of these gaps. However, skepticism runs high among the pensioners I interview, many of whom have seen multiple policy changes over the years with limited improvement in their daily experiences.
“They announce big plans in Pretoria,” Florence remarks with characteristic pragmatism, “but here on the ground, we still wait all day at the clinic only to be told to come back tomorrow. The grant must fill these gaps, leaving less for everything else.”
Digital Transformation: Opportunity and Exclusion
The March 2025 payment cycle will see SASSA’s continued push toward digital transformation, including the expanded rollout of the digital wallet system first piloted in late 2024. This innovation allows beneficiaries to receive their grants directly to a smartphone application, from which they can make payments to registered merchants without physical cash handling.
For tech-savvy recipients, this system offers genuine advantages. “I no longer fear being robbed on pension day,” explains 63-year-old Jacob Moloi, a former teacher who shows me how he uses the app on his phone. “I can pay my electricity directly and transfer money to my daughter in Durban for my grandson’s school fees. It saves me time and transport costs.”
However, the digital divide remains stark among older South Africans. A 2024 study by the University of the Witwatersrand found that only 37% of SASSA old age grant recipients owned smartphones, and just 29% reported feeling confident using digital financial services.
This disparity creates a two-tier experience: simplified, efficient access for those with digital literacy and devices versus increasingly marginalized traditional options for those without. SASSA officials insist that conventional payment methods will remain available “for the foreseeable future,” but resources and optimization clearly favor digital channels, potentially deepening existing inequalities.
Looking Forward: The Grant in Context
As South Africa approaches the March 2025 payment cycle, it’s clear that the SASSA old age grant remains both a vital lifeline and an insufficient solution to the challenges facing the country’s seniors. The modest increase to R2,220/R2,240 provides crucial support but continues to lose ground against rising living costs.
“We are grateful, don’t misunderstand,” Florence tells me as we conclude our day together. “Before democracy, many of us had nothing. But we are not just surviving – we are trying to live with dignity in our final years. This is harder than it should be.”
This sentiment captures the complex reality of South Africa’s social security system: an essential program that prevents absolute destitution for millions while falling short of enabling the dignified aging envisioned in the country’s constitution.
As pensioners prepare for the March 2025 payment, they do so with the resilience and adaptability they’ve demonstrated throughout their lives. They will continue to build community support networks, develop creative budgeting strategies, and navigate bureaucratic hurdles with determination. But they also hope for a future where the value of their contributions to building South Africa will be more fully recognized through a social security system that truly meets their needs.
After all, as 79-year-old struggle veteran Michael Thabane reminds me before I leave Mamelodi: “We did not fight for freedom to spend our old age in poverty. We fought for a South Africa where everyone could live with dignity – young and old. We’re still fighting for that vision, one day at a time.”
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