Food parcels handed out by ANC Youth League president Julius Malema last week were not sponsored by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa), the social development ministry said on Thursday.

Spokesperson Zanele Mngadi sought to "clarify" that the parcels were not sponsored by the government, but were donated to Minister Edna Molewa by private companies.

This followed an outcry by opposition parties after Malema handed out the parcels at an event organised by the government in Philippi, in the Western Cape.

The Democratic Alliance has asked the Public Protector to probe the incident, which its social development spokesperson Patricia Kopane has described as a "clear conflation of party and state".

Kopane also asked that the Public Service Commission look into the matter.

Mngadi said Molewa was meant to hand out the parcels herself, but could not attend the event. Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi arrived too late to hand out the parcels.

Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi, also a member of the youth league's national executive committee, on Thursday said the items handed out were not food parcels but hampers and denied that Malema handed them out at all.

Letsatsi told the Cape Times last week that the ANCYL helped identify needy people across the country and that any other political party which did the same could also be present when the poor were helped.

Letsatsi was with Malema when the hampers were handed out, reportedly with an ANCYL banner in the background next to the agency's. Letsasi told the Cape Times he saw nothing unusual in this.

"Any civil movement or political organisation can approach Sassa to ask assistance for poor people. Sassa issued the call that if anybody identified people in need of relief assistance, they must come forward.

"The ANCYL is doing it all over the country and identifying people in need. From Sassa's side, we go and verify if the people identified do qualify," Letsatsi told the newspaper.