Welfare grants fiasco will hog news headlines
THE confusion over the payment of social grants will continue to dominate headlines this week after a chaotic media briefing by Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini on Sunday that fuelled further questions rather than provided answers.
The minister committed to the payment of about 17-million social grants on April 1, but backtracked from a Friday statement in which she said a deal had been struck with Cash Paymaster Services.
The minister is likely to come under further pressure this week after ANC ally Cosatu on Thursday called for her axing or resignation. She also faces a grilling from Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts on Tuesday. Dlamini was summoned to appear before the committee after her officials failed to explain the situation adequately at an appearance on Monday last week that the minister failed to attend.
This comes on the back of the resignation at the weekend of the department’s directorgeneral Zane Dangor, in which he cited differences with Dlamini on the welfare payments debacle as one of the reasons for his departure.
The ANC has yet to break its silence on the social grant matter as the April 1 deadline looms and questions of ineptitude hang over its government over the handling of the matter. The DA will hold a march over the issue to the Social Development Department on Friday. The furore about differences in the ANC over its approach to land expropriation without compensation is also set to continue this week after its MPs rejected an offer by the EFF for the party to use its 6% in Parliament to amend the Constitution to allow it to implement the policy. However, two days later, President Jacob Zuma contradicted his own party’s MPs, saying all parties must work together in Parliament to expropriate land without compensation. The inconsistency and lack of a centre in the ANC continues to be exposed through the policy utterances of its top leadership.
The party will launch its policy discussion documents on Sunday next week.
Economic policy will be key as already stark differences have emerged between different factions in the party.
The documents will be used by ANC structures to prepare for its national policy conference at the end of June.
On Tuesday, Parliament’s portfolio committee on home affairs will discuss the divisive Border Management Authority Bill and the portfolio committee on transport will receive a briefing from the Transport Department and the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) on the status of Metrorail.
This comes as the fate of former acting Prasa CE Collins Letsoalo remains unclear after he was removed by the board but he insisted that he could be removed only by Transport Minister Dipuo Peters.
The portfolio committee on trade and industry also meets on Tuesday for a status report on the Ford Kuga recall.
On Monday, the Department of Trade and Industry will hold a dialogue on the country’s economic policy outlook.
Minister Rob Davies will be in East London on Monday, addressing the Eastern Cape Provincial Liquor Industry Summit.
The busy week in Parliament continues with questions to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa in the National Assembly on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Gauteng finance MEC Barbara Creecy delivers the provincial budget, which is set to focus on economic growth through infrastructure development and public-private partnerships as outlined in Premier David Makhura’s state of the province address. The provincial government has been criticised by the DA for wasteful spending. Its spokeswoman for finance Adriana Randall said the party would be looking to Creecy’s budget for a “frugal spending plan” that eliminates spending on “extravagances” such as entertainment, catering and travel.