Thank you, Chair. The first thing is to move from the premise that the pension that the hon member refers to is a social assistance pension and not any other kind of a retirement pension. Yes, indeed, we believe that our means test, which we have in terms of the Social Assistance Act, is an administrative tool that requires every applicant for a pension to disclose any form of income, whether from South Africa or elsewhere - Botswana, Britain or anywhere else.
Individuals with dual citizenship are managed by exclusion through the application of this means test. Citizens with an income below the means test will qualify either for a full social grant or a reduced grant based on this means test, which they must declare in terms of the regulations and the Act.
Section 5 of the Social Assistance Act, Act 13 of 2004, states that only the following categories of people are eligible to receive social assistance in South Africa:
... South African citizens who are resident in the Republic, permanent residents and a category of persons prescribed by the Minister by notice in the gazette.
These requirements include valid forms of identification. The SA Social Security Agency, Sassa, can only comply with the eligibility provisions of the Social Assistance Act and can, therefore, not exclude anybody who qualifies in terms of the criteria stated earlier on.
Having said that, it does therefore indicate that we'll not have a number of people who are receiving pensions from any foreign state because, naturally, they'll be excluded by a means test, which is a tool we use. Thank you very much.