SASSA owes R17,89 million in rent across seven offices, Pule tells Parliament

The South African Social Security Agency owes municipalities and other landlords R17,89 million in unpaid rent across seven offices, Social Development Minister Dina Pule told Parliament in a written reply. The single largest debt is carried by the agency’s national Records Management Centre, which owes R16,5 million on three months of unpaid rent.

The figure was first published by The South African on 17 September. The breakdown in the parliamentary reply shows the arrears are spread across KwaZulu-Natal, the Northern Cape and the agency’s national office, and that most of the money has been outstanding for months rather than weeks.

Where the money is owed

The New Hanover local office in KwaZulu-Natal has not paid rent since 1 September 2023, a period the reply puts at three years, with R503 469,87 outstanding. The Umnini service point owes R439 704,85 after 19 months. The Nebo local office, where the landlord is the provincial Department of Public Works, owes R235 018,62 after 21 months. The Dukuza service point owes R120 761,52 for 11 months and Lamontville owes R69 431,95 for eight months.

Outside KwaZulu-Natal, the Fraserburg local office under the Karoo Hoogland Local Municipality owes R10 000 for three months.

Pule told Parliament the arrears arise from disputes over municipal rates, billing and lease agreements rather than a straightforward refusal to pay. At New Hanover, she said the dispute concerns billing rates and invoices that have not been ratified, and SASSA and the municipality are negotiating a new lease that is expected to include arrangements to settle the debt.

Why a rent bill at a grant agency matters

SASSA administers and distributes social grants to millions of South Africans, and its offices and service points are where people go to register a birth, fix a payment that has failed, or apply for a grant they are entitled to. An office that loses its lease does not stop the grant. It moves the counter, and the counter is often the only way a beneficiary without data or transport can resolve a problem.

The unpaid rent also lands on municipal balance sheets. Municipalities rely on payments from government institutions to fund basic services, and National Treasury has raised concern about the scale of government debt to councils. In May, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said provincial departments owed municipalities more than R14 billion and national departments a further R8,2 billion, and announced that Treasury would deduct money from national and provincial departments to settle outstanding debts owed to affected municipalities.

That mechanism matters here. Where a department does not pay, the deduction comes off its allocation, which is money already budgeted for services.

No consequence management in any case

The parliamentary reply also records that no consequence management measures have been implemented in any of the cases involving SASSA officials connected to the outstanding rental matters. Despite millions of rand in rent remaining unpaid, no disciplinary action has been taken against officials responsible for the relevant payment or lease processes.

That is the part of the reply with the longest tail. A billing dispute is a negotiation. A lease that runs three years without resolution, at an office that continues to serve the public, is a failure of contract management, and the reply does not record anyone being held to account for it.

What happens next

SASSA and the affected municipalities are negotiating new lease agreements, including arrangements to settle the outstanding rental debt. The New Hanover lease is the one the reply identifies as being under active negotiation, and the settlement of that debt depends on the new agreement being concluded. Until the billing and contractual disputes are settled, the arrears remain on the agency’s books and on the municipalities’ debtors’ ledgers.

Source: The South African, SASSA owes millions in unpaid rent across seven offices, 17 September 2026.