Many South Africans reliant on the Social Relief of Distress grant face severe hardships due to a new biometric verification system introduced by Sassa to combat fraud. Beneficiaries report being unable to access their funds for months due to issues with the verification process, which requires high-quality smartphones and internet access that many do not have.

Listen to this article 12 min Listen to this article 12 min 'I don't know what else to do. I am still trying but it still says the camera is not allowed. I am busy with it every day but it always says 'camera not allowed', now it has been two months without any payment."

These were the words of a recipient of the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant. The recipient, who did not want to be named, is one of numerous recipients who have complained that they can't access their grant because of a new identity verification process introduced by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) to fight fraud.

Elizabeth Raiters, deputy chairperson of #PayTheGrants, said they were not against the introduction of identification verification as they were aware there was a significant prevalence of fraud when it came to SRD grants and that they were one of the organisations that alerted Sassa to this.

"The only problem with this is how Sassa went about it. Sassa did not actually notify any beneficiaries that were either flagged for fraud or that their identity might have been used [for] fraud against...