Stellenbosch University students uncover massive SRD grant scam at SASSA
First-year students Joel Cedras and Veer Gosai used legal methods to access SASSA's grant system. What they discovered was shocking.
Picture: Barbara Maregele/GroundUp
Lester Kiewit speaks to Stellenbosch University computer science students Joel Cedras and Veer Gosai and Barbara October, Deputy Editor at GroundUp.
Listen below.
In May 2020, as the extent of the Covid-19 pandemic became clear, the government introduced the R350 SRD (Social Relief of Distress) grant.
Millions of South Africans between 18 and 60 continue to receive the grant, (now R370) which provides a lifeline to the poorest of the poor. The SRD grant is a possible precursor to a basic income grant.
However, an investigation by two first-year Stellenbosch University computer science students, Joel Cedras and Veer Gosai, may have uncovered massive fraud within the SASSA SRD grant system.
October says it's an impressive investigation for students in the early stages of their tertiary education.
ALSO READ: Sassa beneficiaries no longer need to switch banks to get paid grants - Postbank
"I certainly wasn't uncovering all of these vulnerabilities in government when I was first-year at varsity.
- Barbara October, Deputy editor - GroundUp
So, what exactly did Cedras and Gosai uncover?
"They basically discovered vulnerabilites within both government and the private sector online systems."
- Barbara October, Deputy editor - GroundUp
The students ran approximately 300 000 ID numbers for people born in February 2005.
What they found was incredibly suspicious.
"What they discovered was there was almost a 91% application rate for people born in that year. Which means almost everyone born in that year would have applied for the SRD grant, the minute they turned 18, which is just so unlikely."
- Barbara October, Deputy editor - GroundUp
Not only that, but the students entered their own ID numbers into the back end of the system and discovered something even more concerning.
"A fraudster was able to open up a bank account in our names and funnel payments of our own SASSA SRD grants to them."
- Veer Gosai, First-year computer science student - Stellenbosch University
Veer explains how they took the investigation a step further, asking students on campus for their ID details which they then ran against the system.
"We asked about 60 people on campus and about 56 of them had SASSA applications that they didn't know about. This is not a small issue."
- Veer Gosai, First-year computer science student - Stellenbosch University
"The SASSA system is very unsecure. Anyone can access the sytem to query the API to see if they have an SRD application active."
- Veer Gosai, First-year computer science student - Stellenbosch University
ALSO READ: Social grants hiked by R10. SASSA clarifies distribution confusion
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview from Good Morning Cape Town.