The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) is a national agency of the South African government created in April 2005 to administer South Africa's social security system, including by distributing social grants, on behalf of the Department of Social Development (DSD). It is under the oversight, but not the operational control, of DSD and the Ministry of Social Development.[1] Established in terms of the Social Assistance Act of 2004 and South African Social Security Agency Act of 2004, SASSA is a public entity in terms of Schedule 3A of the Public Finance Management Act.[2] As of 2022 its chief executive officer was Busisiwe Memela-Khambula.[3]
SASSA was founded in 2005 to centralise the provision of social security assistance, formerly a primarily provincial function, in order to reduce corruption and improve service delivery.[4] It was closely modelled on its Australian counterpart, Centrelink.[4] Its key functions relate to the administration and payment of social grants, which support a large proportion of the South African population: in 2022, 46% of South Africans received a social grant.[5] SASSA's functions including processing applications for social security assistance, verifying and approving applications, disbursing and paying the grants to eligible beneficiaries, and preventing and detecting fraud.[2] SASSA employs biometric technology, including fingerprint and facial recognition, to verify the identity of beneficiaries. This helps ensure that the grants reach the intended recipients and reduce the risk of identity theft and fraud.