The Minister of Social Development, Sisisi Tolashe, says they have saved approximately 300-million rand since the recent implementation of the biometric system.

The department introduced the mandatory biometric system last year after thousands of non-eligible people defrauded the social grant system.

It aims to combat fraud, improve the social grant system’s security, and ensure that only qualifying and living individuals receive grants.

Tolashe says the digital identification programme is already showing promising results at the few pilot centres where it is running.