The number of illegal money-lenders arrested in East London with SASSA cards belonging to grant beneficiaries has increased from 17 to 19.
On Monday, officials from SASSA's fraud and compliance unit and the Hawks swooped on Hemingways Mall, where unregistered money-lenders were withdrawing hundreds of thousands of rands belonging to grant beneficiaries who owe them money.
SASSA Eastern Cape spokesperson, Luzuko Qina, says they also seized 221 SASSA cards as well as more than R110-thousand in cash which had already been withdrawn from beneficiary accounts.
He says had all the SASSA cards in the possession of the illegal money-lenders been used, it is estimated that around half-a-million rand would have been withdrawn from ATM's in the roughly three hour period that they were monitoring activities in the Mall.
Qina also explains how serious this situation with money-lenders is, in the Eastern Cape where more than R2bn rand a month is paid to grant beneficiaries.
According to Section 20(0) of the Social Assistance Act, 2004 (Act 13 of 2004), it is unlawful to transfer/cede or pledge your social grant.
SASSA urges all social grant beneficiaries not to use their social grants and payment cards to obtain loans, and cede their cards as guarantees for repayment.
