How We Verify Our Guides

Every CluedUp guide is built from official South African government sources, dated, reviewed by a human editor, and updated when the rules change.

Our verification promise

CluedUp exists to be trustworthy on topics where getting it wrong costs people money and time. So we hold every guide to the same standard: it must be traceable to an official South African government source, checked by a person, dated, and correctable. If we cannot verify a claim from an official source, we do not publish it.

Official sources only

We build our guides from primary government portals and publications, not from other blogs or unverified social media posts. The core sources we rely on include:

• srd.sassa.gov.za and sassa.gov.za for the SRD grant and other SASSA grants
• nsfas.org.za for student funding
• sars.gov.za for tax and eFiling
• dha.gov.za for Home Affairs services (Smart ID, passports, birth certificates)
• education.gov.za for Department of Basic Education matters such as matric

When an official portal publishes a figure, a deadline, or a procedure, that is what we report. Where a topic touches law or regulation, we point to the relevant official publication rather than paraphrasing it as fact.

Our verification process

Each guide goes through the same steps before it goes live:

• Source check: We locate the claim on the relevant official portal and confirm it directly, not through a third party.
• Cross-check: Where a portal is ambiguous, we look for a second official confirmation before we state something as fact.
• Human editorial review: A human editor reads the guide for accuracy, clarity and safety before publication.
• Safety pass: We confirm the guide never asks for sensitive data and always links to the correct official portal.

Dating and updating

Public services change constantly. Grant amounts are adjusted, deadlines move, and portals get redesigned. Every guide carries a published or last-updated date so you can judge how current it is. We review guides on a rolling basis and whenever we learn of a change from an official source, and we update the date when we revise the content.

How we handle amounts and figures

Figures change, so we present them carefully. For example, the SRD grant amount (such as R370) is described as correct “as of” a particular time, with a clear instruction to confirm the current amount on the official portal before you rely on it. We would rather you double-check a live figure than trust a number that may have changed since we wrote it. The same applies to application fees, passport costs and filing deadlines.

AI-assisted drafting, human editorial review

We are transparent about how our guides are produced. We use AI tools to help draft and structure content efficiently, but AI does not have the final say. Every guide is checked against official sources and reviewed by a human editor who is responsible for its accuracy before it is published. We do not publish unreviewed machine output, and the editorial responsibility for what appears on CluedUp rests with people, not software.

Exclude if unverifiable

If we cannot confirm a detail from an official source, we leave it out rather than guess. It is better to give you a shorter guide that is correct than a longer one that includes something we cannot stand behind. We also avoid inventing specifics such as exact processing times or office-level details that official sources do not publish.

Scam warnings built in

Because fraud is common around these services, we build safety warnings directly into our guides. We remind readers that legitimate government portals use official .gov.za or recognised addresses, that no real service will ask you to pay a stranger to “unlock” a grant, and that you should never share your ID number, PIN, OTP or banking details in response to an unsolicited message. Our Contact page repeats these safety rules.

Corrections workflow

When you report an error, we treat it seriously. Email [email protected] with the page URL and what looks wrong. We check the claim against the official source, correct verified errors as quickly as we can, and update the page’s revision date so you can see it has been refreshed. Transparent correction is part of how we earn and keep your trust.