Public concern about fraud in South Africa’s social protection system has grown sharply in recent years. In response, the government has introduced new automated and algorithmic measures, including stricter surveillance, biometric checks and large-scale verification processes aimed at rooting out fraud. However, these measures often misidentify wrongdoing, place the burden of policing on elderly, disabled and low-income beneficiaries, and result in unfair exclusion. In this webinar, we will present and discuss the results of IEJ research into where fraud actually occurs in the social protection system. Our findings demonstrate how current anti-fraud efforts are harming the very people social protection is meant to support.

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