‘BROKEN SYSTEM’: SRD grant battle reaches Supreme Court of Appeal as state challenges historic judgment

The legal battle over South Africa's Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant has reached the Supreme Court of Appeal, where the state is challenging a historic lower court judgment. The court proceedings center on systemic issues within the grant administration, which advocacy groups argue have severely undermined the relief program.

During the proceedings, the Institute for Economic Justice and #PayTheGrants, represented by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute, characterized the current application and distribution framework as a broken system. They presented data highlighting significant administrative failures, including a 33% database error rate that leads to wrongful exclusions and a 99% appeal rejection rate for applicants denied the grant.