In the beginning of August, applications opened up for unemployed South Africans to start applying for the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) Grant, meant to financially assist them for six months.

This comes after the President Cyril Ramaphosa announced during one of the family meetings, that the grant will be returned after it ended early this year. He mentioned that this time around, applications will be open to more South Africans, including unemployed parents currently receiving SASSA grant money.

These are the news that excited the people of South Africa after the grant ended and looting happened a few months down the line. After applications were opened, systems that were put in place froze, as SASSA reported they have received over 7000 applications on a daily basis,  that caused the system to crash.

Although a lot went wrong during the application progress, SASSA received over one million application and payments were set to resume on the 28 August 2021. To this date, SASSA issued a statement to let applicants know they have successfully approved about R1.1 million applications.

On the night of 28 August, payments were sent off to applicants, however payments are being sent out according to the last three digits of the South African ID number.

Approved applicants took to social media to add hope to others who were waiting for an approval SMS, that the money is indeed being paid out as many felt this was another excuse to distract them from the real issues.

SASSA advices other applicants to be patient, as they are still receiving thousands of applications everyday. For more information on how to apply, access the website  https://srd.sassa.gov.za/ for applications. SASSA is also available on the social media platforms sending out daily updates, approved applicants are urged to collect their payments to avoid setbacks.