The National Treasury reports that R12-billion in savings has been identified for the coming three years as a result of its Targeted and Responsible Savings (TARS) initiative, which requires departments to interrogate programme efficiency and effectiveness when seeking funds.

“Overall, the first round of this process has identified R12-billion in wasteful or ineffective programmes. Over the medium term, government intends to realise more savings,” the Budget Review states.

The scaling down of the public transport network grant has yielded about R8-billion of that saving, with a TARS assessment having concluded that the grant has not yielded sufficient increases in ridership to justify new investment in the system.

The bus rapid transit system benefiting from the grant will continue to receive support, but no new BRT schemes will be supported.

It is not yet certain whether the public transport network grant saving is permanent, but while the Department of Transport assessment continues to be undertaken a significant portion of the savings will be shifted to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa’s Metrorail service, which aims to increase ridership from 116-million passenger trips in the current year to 450-million by 2028/29.

The balance of the savings has arisen from tightening social grant controls, with proceeds having been reallocated to strengthen State capacity in the judiciary, border management, defence and Statistics South Africa.

The Budget Review also includes details on the tightening of social grants compliance, after the South African Social Security Agency’s allocation for 2025/26 was made conditional on the agency improving biometric and income verification processes and undertaking more frequent eligibility reviews.

By December 2025, the agency had checked the bank accounts of about 6-million clients and 8-million credit bureau clients, which flagged 291 581 grant beneficiaries for review.

“As a result of the review process and strict implementation of the sliding scale, which bases grant values on recipients’ incomes, grant amounts were adjusted for 8 599 disability and old‑age grant recipients in accordance with the eligibility criteria. This results in projected savings of R36.4-million in 2025/26.”

The document indicates that a further 34 661 grants were cancelled, generating expected savings of R170.7-million by the end of 2025/26.

Meanwhile, government’s ongoing ‘ghost worker’ audit identified 4 323 suspicious cases, and a verification process is under way with the aim of halting salary payments for unverified employees.