Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu is on Wednesday afternoon expected to announce details on how unemployed citizens can apply for the Covid-19 relief social fund.
President Cyril Ramaphosa had announced measures to relieve the stress caused by the national lockdown which included the increase of social grants and the addition of temporary relief grant for the unemployed.
From May the disability and the old age grants would increase by R250 while the child grants would increase by R300 and from June both will increase by R500. These measures will be implemented for the next six months.
There has been widespread speculation about how the income grant will be applied and the criteria that will be used by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa).
Zulu had told Parliament last week that her department was working on the criteria to ensure that those deserving and in need receive the grant.
Over the weekend, it had emerged that Sassa had run a trial of a system that may be used to receive applications for the income grant.
The agency's twitter account had tweeted a number that applicants could send their details to. The number was the same number used to disperse Covid-19 information.
"The WhatsApp application system for #COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant opened only for testing over the weekend and it's closed now. We'll announce an official opening date," Sassa's twitter account said over the weekend.
"The special temporary COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress will only be applied for as soon as its application system is in place, which will be announced when ready. That was a trial run for the system&those who applied are not expected to reapply as their applications went through."