{"id":46250,"date":"2025-12-30T08:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T08:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=46250"},"modified":"2025-12-30T08:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T08:38:09","slug":"first-sassa-grants-of-2026-here-is-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2025\/12\/30\/first-sassa-grants-of-2026-here-is-what-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"First Sassa grants of 2026: Here is what you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>The Gauteng Department of Social Development came under criticism after failing to spend more than R100m during the 2024\/25 financial year.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) will disburse the first social grants of 2026 to beneficiaries next week.<\/p>\n<p>The agency administers more than 19 million grant payments, including the Older Persons\u2019 Pension Grant, Disability Grant, War Veterans Grant, Care Dependency Grant, Foster Child Grant, Child Support Grant, Child Support Grant Top-Up, and Grant-in-Aid.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-january-2026-grant-payments\">January 2026 grant payments<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Sassa grant payment dates:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Older Persons Grant \u2013 Tuesday, 6 January 2025<\/li>\n<li>Disability Grant \u2013 Wednesday, 7 January 2025<\/li>\n<li>Children\u2019s Grants \u2013 Thursday, 8 January 2025<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Sassa grant amounts:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Old Age Grant (60\u201374 years) and Disability Grant \u2013 R2\u202f315<\/li>\n<li>Old Age Grant (75+ years) \u2013 R2\u202f335<\/li>\n<li>War Veterans Grant \u2013 R2\u202f315<\/li>\n<li>Care Dependency Grant \u2013 R2\u202f315<\/li>\n<li>Child Support Grant \u2013 R560<\/li>\n<li>Foster Care Grant \u2013 R1\u202f250<\/li>\n<li>SRD Grant \u2013 R370<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:\u00a0Sassa: Former nurse arrested for disability grant fraud in Limpopo<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-gauteng-social-development-criticised-for-r100m-underspending\">Gauteng social development criticised for R100m underspending<\/h3>\n<p>The Gauteng Department of Social Development has come under criticism after failing to spend more than R100 million during the 2024\u201325 financial year.<\/p>\n<p>According to the department\u2019s annual report, R102.9 million of its allocated budget remained unspent. The reasons for the underspending were not explained in the report.<\/p>\n<p>This comes amid growing social challenges in the province. Statistics South Africa data and the General Household Survey of 2020\u20132021 indicate that Gauteng had 154 000 orphans between the ages of 0 and 17, representing a 1.7% increase from the 78 000 recorded in the previous financial year.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-leadership-and-planning-failures-blamed\">Leadership and planning failures blamed<\/h3>\n<p>Wayne Duvenage, CEO of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), said departments that fail to spend their budgets either lack proper planning or are not functioning effectively.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a political leadership issue which needs an intervention. If the premier is not going to take action and fire or hold his leadership to account, then the president\/Cabinet and\/or parliament should start holding Panyaza Lesufi and his MECs to account.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cQuite frankly, when it comes to the next elections, it is up to the electorate to hold the Gauteng political leadership to account \u2013 by voting them out of office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Duvenage added that political change was necessary in municipalities and provinces that consistently failed to deliver on their mandates.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:\u00a0\u2018Bring back my child, I need my Sassa grant\u2019: How caregivers are threatened by negligent parents<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-opposition-highlights-repeat-failures\">Opposition highlights repeat failures<\/h3>\n<p>Democratic Alliance member of the Gauteng provincial legislature, Refiloe Nt\u2019sekhe, said the underspending reflected a recurring problem rather than an isolated incident.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYet again, the department has failed its constitutional mandate, continues to miss targets and again leaves millions unspent while the most vulnerable suffer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is more than financial failure. It is an ethical failure. A failure of leadership. Despite commitments to expand disability services, the department once again failed to meet targets for residential and community-based support. Underspending and administrative weaknesses continue to undermine the rights of persons with disabilities,\u201d Nt\u2019sekhe said.<\/p>\n<p>She also pointed out that the department failed to meet its target of employing 2% persons with disabilities and did not achieve its goals for empowering businesses owned by people with disabilities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis illustrates how persons with disabilities continue to be excluded from the economy. This is a disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOW READ:\u00a0Gauteng social development slammed over R100m underspending<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Sassa #grants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Gauteng Department of Social Development came under criticism after failing to spend more than R100m during the 2024\/25 financial&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46252,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46250\/revisions\/46252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}