Out of the more than 5 000 government workers who fraudulently received the R350 special social relief grant, more than 1 700 officials are employed at provincial health departments across the country.

In the Eastern Cape alone, 986 staffers at the provincial health department fraudulently claimed the R350 grant.

This emerged in Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu's response to a written parliamentary question from Democratic Alliance MP Mimmy Gondwe, who wanted details on the government's efforts to recoup the R5.8-million spent on the grants.

According to Zulu, every effort had been made to ensure public servants who benefitted repaid the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa).

"It is not possible to provide a date when recovery will be made since the loss recovery process runs parallel with the criminal prosecution processes as per Section 300 of the Criminal Procedure Act. As and when the National Prosecution Authority [NPA] starts prosecution on individual cases, the processes of loss recovery will also unfold," she said.

"Sassa is running parallel processes that are criminal and civil action as stated above to ensure that no civil servant escapes repaying Sassa," she added. 

The highest number of public servants, who illegally benefitted from the grants, work in provincial health departments.

Figures Zulu provided do not specify if the officials are employed at hospitals, clinics or within the administration of the various departments.

In KwaZulu-Natal, 221 officials in the provincial health department received the R350 grant and in the Western Cape, 172 officials benefitted illegally.

The North West has 129 officials who received the grant.

The Gauteng health department had 113 officials who got a R350 grant, and in Mpumalanga, 103 staffers got away with receiving it.

At national government level, 40 officials in the Department of Correctional Services fraudulently received the grant.

In May 2020, 5 812 government officials fraudulently received the grant to the value of R5.8-million.

Only 242 cases are being investigated.

During the screening process, the department found only 198 employees on the list of 242 were government workers.

Earlier this month, News24 reported on Sassa which is yet to report a senior government official for fraudulently receiving the R350 social relief of distress grant despite earning a salary of just over R1-million annually.

Last month, it emerged the government continued to pay social grants to some employees even though Sassa did not have "the precise information on the employment nature" of certain beneficiaries.

In September 2021, Sassa stopped paying social grants to more than 177 000 state employees, but the following month payments were reinstated.

Sassa, however, does not have precise information on "the employment nature" of the reinstated beneficiaries.

By July 2021, 177 108 social grants - excluding social relief grants - were received by employees of national and provincial government departments.

Zulu said a multi-party forum established to investigate the payments consists of 20 officials from the NPA, Financial Intelligence Centre, police, Department of Public Service and Administration and Sassa.

"Each organisation is led by a senior official at the level of chief director or general manager, and lowest position is that of manager or deputy-director," she added.