No one begrudges recipients of South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) Grants earning a little extra on the side. One man, let’s call him “Joe” for the purposes of the story, runs an off-the-books township butchery. It’s pretty simple, he buys meat in bulk and sells it in smaller portions in his township.
According to KasiNomics Unleashed, a book written by GG Alcock, this earns Joe around R70 000 a month. Ever the entrepreneur, Joe also rents out backrooms on his property, earning himself another R10 000. On top of all that, because Joe is a pensioner, the household also cashes in on Older Person SASSA Grants each month.
SASSA GRANTS, PLUS R1 MILLION A YEAR
Add up the SASSA grants and Joe’s free-market efforts and he brings in R86 500 a month, or R1 million annually. Crucial to it all: “He has no paperwork. His business pays no rent, no utilities. He sees no need to formalise his businesses,” explains Alcock. Better still, Joe received an RDP house from government back 2002. He later built six rental units on the same plot, each bringing in R750 to R1 500 a month, largely from foreign nationals.
However, government is no longer blind to this drain of public coffers. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has flagged the informal economy, along with the taxi industry, as priority areas for tax revenue. As such, SARS is rolling out an Informal Economy Response Strategy (IERS) aimed at retailers and micro-enterprises. Since 2024, it’s already pulled 21 890 previously unregistered taxpayers. In turn, this has generated R314 million in additional revenue, says Godongwana.
HOW DOES HE BEAT THE SASSA GRANTS MEANS TEST?
This flagrant disregard for SASSA grants due process is a separate, thornier question. Is the SASSA means test for the Older Person Grant thorough enough if it’s missing undocumented cash flow of people like Joe? If his real household income was verified, he would not qualify at all. And Joe is one of possibly millions of examples of a larger invisible pattern.
So, we’d genuinely like to know where our readers land on this. Is Joe simply a smart operator working the system? Or is he exactly the reason strict and divisive agency measures are being put in place to throttle back social welfare, ultimately harming those who really need it?
But what do you think? We’d love to hear your interpretation. Please share your thoughts in the comments section below …
