SASSA SRD Grant Legal Battle Heads to Appeal Court in August 2026

The legal fight is far from over

The legal action over the Social Relief of Distress grant, once written off as settled, is now heading for South Africa’s second-highest court. The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein is set to hear the government’s challenge on 25 August 2026, in a case that could reshape how millions of people reach the R370 monthly grant that used to be known as the R350 SRD.

The dispute reached this point after the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria handed down a landmark judgment in January 2025. Judge Leonard Twala found that six regulations governing the grant were unconstitutional and invalid. The case was brought by the Institute for Economic Justice and the #PayTheGrants campaign, represented by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute, with the Minister of Finance later joining to oppose it.

Rather than accept the outcome, the Department of Social Development, the South African Social Security Agency and National Treasury applied for leave to appeal. The High Court granted that leave in March 2025, sending the matter up to the Supreme Court of Appeal because of what the judge described as its seriousness and public interest for a large share of the population.

What the High Court actually found

The 2025 ruling struck at the core machinery of the grant. The court held that restricting applications to an online-only platform was irrational and shut out people without smartphones or data. It also found that the bank verification method and the database checks used to flag income were unlawful in the way they were applied.

The judgment went further on money. It declared the R624 monthly income threshold and the R370 grant value unconstitutional, and directed the government to progressively raise both in line with inflation and the cost of living. The court was blunt about the design of the system, finding that procedural barriers had the effect of reducing the number of beneficiaries so that spending stayed inside a fixed budget. In the judge’s words, the online barrier carried an <cite index=”8-1″>”ulterior purpose”</cite> of cutting grant uptake, according to the official judgment.

There was also a finding on payments. The court ruled that SASSA’s failure to pay approved beneficiaries on time, or at all, was unconstitutional and unlawful, and ordered the agency to investigate the causes of the delays and fix them.

Why the government is appealing

The state’s position is money. In its appeal papers, National Treasury argues that lifting the grant or widening who qualifies would be unaffordable. It has put the cost of extending the grant to a far larger pool at between R70.6 billion and R139 billion a year, and says the court treated a temporary relief measure as if it were a permanent poverty grant.

The government also defends the online system, arguing that applicants who complained on social media clearly had digital access in the first place. On the definition of income, it maintains that the grant is assessed month by month to meet immediate need, and that regular checks are due diligence to prevent payments going out in error.

The applicants reject that framing. The Institute for Economic Justice and #PayTheGrants have asked the Supreme Court of Appeal to dismiss the appeal, arguing that once-off gifts, loans and child maintenance are wrongly counted as income, and that the whole structure is built to keep eligible people out to save money rather than to stop fraud. They also point to repeated statements from government that it intends to keep the grant and grow it toward a permanent basic income, which they say contradicts the argument that it is only temporary.

What it means for beneficiaries right now

Nothing changes for current recipients while the appeal is pending. The grant remains at R370 a month, and the income cut-off to qualify is still R624. Payments continue on the normal schedule, and the April 2026 grant adjustments for other grants are unaffected by this case.

Funding is also in place for now. In the 2026 Budget, government confirmed the grant would continue until 31 March 2027, with an additional allocation set aside to keep paying it at its current value, according to official budget statements. About nine million people are approved for the grant at present, though the campaigners say the number who should qualify is closer to eighteen million.

The real weight of the case lies in what the appeal court decides. If the Supreme Court of Appeal upholds the High Court, the government could be forced to open in-person applications, loosen the income rules, exclude once-off money from income calculations and set the grant on a path of steady increases. If it overturns the ruling, the current tight system stands. Either way, the outcome on 25 August 2026 will set the rules for how the country’s largest cash relief programme is run for years to come.