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NOPE
Low reported severity

South Africa: pensioners report repeated failures of the facial recognition step in SASSA's eLife certification portal, and SASSA reports disruptions and office queues

The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) introduced an online eLife Certification (life certification) for grant beneficiaries that uses biometric verification through its electronic Know Your Client (eKYC) system. IOL reports the certification was implemented on 30 March 2026. SASSA says beneficiaries who do not complete life certification as directed may face payment delays or suspension. On 10 April 2026 SASSA apologised to beneficiaries who could not access the portal, said system glitches linked to interfaces with other departments had caused delays, disruptions and long queues at its offices, and said the problem was resolved. On 23 April 2026 IOL reported that a pensioner couple said they had tried the facial recognition option 22 times since 2 April without success, and that beneficiaries nationwide told IOL they could not complete the certification, citing failures with facial recognition and one-time PINs, with one pensioner also reporting a message that Home Affairs was not available to verify their particulars. A SASSA spokesperson said the portals work and that 13,644 (88%) of the 15,499 unique clients who accessed the online verification services by 16 April were verified, and IOL reports SASSA admitted the system has been working intermittently. In a May 2026 report on a parliamentary reply, IOL said SASSA stated that unsuccessful facial recognition attempts on online platforms were among the causes of non-verification (those beneficiaries are redirected to fingerprint checks at local offices) and that it had recorded 7,779 complaints linked to its electronic facial biometric system. The department attributed facial verification issues to poor lighting, unstable connectivity or missing biometric records at Home Affairs. Neither May report mentions the eLife portal, and IOL places the figures within a biometric verification rollout that it dates from September 2025. The reports do not say how many grants were suspended because of facial verification failures.

AI system
SASSA eLife facial verification
South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), deployer
Occurred
30 Mar 2026
Reported
23 April 2026
Event location
South Africa
What the AI did
Made a decision about the person
Reported harm
Other Material Harm
Whose AI use
An institution’s AI use
Setting
Public services · Accessibility
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 4 underlying accounts
7 claims: 7 reported. 8 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 2 people

AI system as recorded: Facial recognition step in SASSA's eLife Certification portal (biometric verification through the eKYC system, integrated with Home Affairs systems). Vendor and model not identified in the sources.

Reported harm

SASSA said glitches caused delays, disruptions and long queues at its offices, and a pensioner couple told IOL they had tried the facial recognition step 22 times since 2 April without success. SASSA warned that beneficiaries who do not complete life certification as directed may face payment delays or suspension. No inspected report says that either pensioner's grant was delayed or suspended.

What remains unknown

  • The reports do not say how many of the 67,868 grant suspensions (third quarter, period not identified) followed unsuccessful facial recognition. The suspensions are governed by a review non-response rule, and a committee statement dated 5 February 2026 already reported around 70,000 suspensions before the eLife implementation date reported by IOL.
  • The 30 March 2026 implementation date comes from IOL only. The SASSA statements read do not give a start date.
  • SASSA's statement refers to facial recognition on online platforms in general. Neither IOL 24 May 2026 nor Daily Voice 25 May 2026 mentions eLife Certification, and IOL places the reply within a biometric verification rollout dated from September 2025 (compulsory biometric enrolment for new applicants, verified at local offices). Whether the 7,779 complaints and the redirections to fingerprint checks concern eLife Certification at all is not stated. Facial photo verification through the same eKYC system for Social Relief of Distress grant applicants was reported earlier (Biometric Update, August 2024, and Corruption Watch, January 2025) and is a separate earlier deployment that this case does not cover.
  • Whether the pensioner couple later completed certification, or whether any grant was delayed or suspended, is not reported.
  • The cause of the couple's failed attempts is not established (lighting, connectivity, missing Home Affairs records, or the facial matching itself).
  • SASSA said on 10 April 2026 that the problem was resolved, and IOL reported failures continuing on 23 April 2026. The 88% success figure is SASSA's and was not checked.
  • The pensioner accounts come from one outlet (IOL). A Joburg ETC article of the same date relays it and adds nothing independent.
  • IOL page dates were taken from the URLs (23 April and 24 May 2026) because the page bodies show only relative ages.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The sources describe a facial recognition step in SASSA's eLife Certification portal, which uses biometric verification through the eKYC system and integration with Home Affairs systems, and IOL's 24 May 2026 report of a parliamentary reply refers to SASSA's electronic facial biometric system without saying whether it is the eLife portal. The vendor and model are not identified. The department attributes facial verification problems to poor lighting, unstable connectivity or missing Home Affairs biometric records, and a SASSA spokesperson says the portals work with intermittent downtime, so the cause of any individual failure is not established.

7 claims: 7 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported SASSA's eLife Certification is a self-service life certification on its online portal that uses biometric verification through its electronic Know Your Client (eKYC) system. IOL reports it was implemented on 30 March 2026. SASSA said beneficiaries who fail to complete life certification as directed may face payment delays or suspension of their grants.

Causal attribution. The implementation date comes from IOL alone. SASSA statements read do not give a start date. The suspension consequence is SASSA's own stated rule and no suspension of either pensioner's grant is reported.

  • iol.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The eLife Certification was implemented on March 30, 2026, as a digital verification tool to curb fraud.
  • iol.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Beneficiaries who fail to complete the process risk having their grants suspended.
  • gov.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    secure biometric verification through the electronic Know Your Client (eKYC) system
  • gov.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Beneficiaries who fail to complete life certification as directed may face payment delays or suspension of their grants.
Reported On 10 April 2026 SASSA apologised to beneficiaries who could not access its self-service portal after being notified to complete eLife Certification. It said system glitches linked to interfaces with other departments had caused delays and disruptions and long queues at its offices, and said the challenge had been resolved.

Causal attribution. SASSA's own account of its portal. The statement does not mention facial recognition and attributes the glitches to interfaces with other departments.

  • gov.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    SASSA would like to apologise to all our beneficiaries who could not access our self-service portal after they were notified to undertake the eLife Certification verification process by the Agency.
  • gov.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    there were system glitches which led to delay and disruptions in completing eLife Certification, leading to long queues at SASSA offices.
  • gov.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    the Agency can report that the challenge has been resolved.
Reported A pensioner couple told IOL they had tried the facial recognition option on the eLife portal 22 times since 2 April 2026 without success. IOL published the account on 23 April 2026.

Causal attribution. Single first-person account relayed by one outlet. The cause of the failures is not established. The department attributes facial verification problems in general to poor lighting, unstable connectivity or missing Home Affairs biometric records (see c6).

  • iol.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    both pensioners, told IOL they had tried to complete the facial recognition option on the portal but to no avail.
  • iol.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    We have been trying since Thursday, April 2, to do the selfie bit but it does not work after trying for 22 times
Reported IOL reported that beneficiaries nationwide contacted it to say they could not complete the certification and cited failures with facial recognition and one-time PINs. One pensioner said the site kept loading without reaching their profile for three weeks, and reported a one-time PIN rejection and a message that Home Affairs was not available to verify their particulars.

Causal attribution. Unquantified accounts relayed by IOL. The pensioner who described the loading failure and the one-time PIN rejection did not describe a facial recognition failure.

  • iol.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    IOL has been inundated with emails and calls from beneficiaries nationwide claiming they were unable to complete the mandatory certification process.
  • iol.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    beneficiaries cite consistent failures with facial recognition and one-time pins (OTPs).
  • iol.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The system just kept on loading and never went through to my profile. I have been struggling for three weeks
  • iol.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Then also indicated that the Department of Home Affairs is not available to verify my particulars
Reported A SASSA spokesperson told IOL the portals are working and that, as of 16 April 2026, 13,644 (88%) of 15,499 unique clients who accessed the online verification services via the client portal were successfully verified. IOL reports SASSA admitted the system had been working intermittently.

Causal attribution. SASSA's own figures and account, which were not independently verified. The figures count clients who accessed online verification and do not report how many failed the facial step.

  • iol.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The Sassa portals are working as evidenced by the number of clients who have accessed the online services.
  • iol.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    As of April 16, 2026, 13,644 (88%) of the 15,499 unique clients who accessed the online verification services via the client portal were successfully verified
  • iol.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    However, Sassa admitted the system has been working intermittently.
Reported IOL's 24 May 2026 report on a parliamentary reply says SASSA said most non-verification cases were driven by beneficiaries who did not respond to notifications, did not complete life certification, or had unsuccessful facial recognition attempts on online platforms, and that such beneficiaries are redirected to fingerprint verification at local offices. IOL says SASSA had recorded 7,779 complaints linked to its electronic facial biometric system and that the department attributed facial verification issues to poor lighting, unstable connectivity or missing biometric records at the Department of Home Affairs.

Causal attribution. SASSA's account relayed by two outlets that share one reporter and one reply, so they are one chain. The reports do not date the complaints or say whether they concern eLife Certification or earlier online facial verification, and do not say how many were repeat complaints.

  • iol.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    SASSA said most non-verification cases were driven by beneficiaries failing to respond to notifications, not completing life certification, or unsuccessful facial recognition attempts on online platforms.
  • iol.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    In such cases, beneficiaries are redirected to fingerprint biometric verification at local offices.
  • iol.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The agency said it had recorded 7,779 complaints linked to its electronic facial biometric system
  • iol.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The department attributed facial verification issues to poor lighting, unstable connectivity, or missing biometric records at the Department of Home Affairs.
  • dailyvoice.co.za(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The agency said it had recorded 7 779 complaints linked to its electronic facial biometric system.
Reported The parliamentary reply reported 67,868 grants suspended in the third quarter (the reports do not identify the period) under a rule that a grant is suspended two months after a beneficiary was notified to conduct a review and has not yet done so. A Parliament committee statement of 5 February 2026 reported around 70,000 grants suspended for beneficiaries failing to come forward for review.

Causal attribution. The suspension figures are context. No inspected report says how many suspensions followed a facial verification failure, and the committee statement predates the eLife implementation date reported by IOL.

Sources

5 sources inspected, from 4 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Event countries: South Africa. Affected-person countries: South Africa. Court countries: Unknown.

IOL reports social grant recipients across South Africa struggling with the portal, and the SASSA statement and parliamentary reply concern the South African Social Security Agency's beneficiaries.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-29: IOL (23 April and 24 May 2026), SASSA's 10 April 2026 statement on gov.za, Daily Voice and a Parliament committee statement were read in full. SASSA's and IOL's accounts are attributed and left at reported, and the pensioners' failures come from one outlet. The pensioners are not named. No inspected report attributes any grant suspension to facial verification failures.

People reported harmed in this case

At least 2 people

0 AI participants · 2 other people harmed

Additional affected people are described without a reliable count.

IOL reports one pensioner couple (two people) who said the facial recognition step failed 22 times. IOL says it was inundated with emails and calls from beneficiaries nationwide and SASSA recorded 7,779 complaints, but complaints are not people and the number of beneficiaries who failed facial verification is not reported, so no larger count is recorded. The 67,868 grant suspensions are not counted because no inspected report attributes them to facial verification.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). South Africa: pensioners report repeated failures of the facial recognition step in SASSA's eLife certification portal, and SASSA reports disruptions and office queues. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-south-africa-sassa-elife-certification-portal-facial-verification-failures-reported-by-pensioners

BibTeX

@misc{2026_south_africa_sassa_elife_certification_portal_facial_verification_failures_reported_by_pensioners,
  title = {South Africa: pensioners report repeated failures of the facial recognition step in SASSA's eLife certification portal, and SASSA reports disruptions and office queues},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-south-africa-sassa-elife-certification-portal-facial-verification-failures-reported-by-pensioners}
}

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