Sassa saga still has many twists ahead
There is a time of political reckoning on the cards over the next few days for politicians responsible for the crisis at the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa). The Constitutional Court has ensured grants will be paid on April 1 and has still to rule on whether Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini should be personally liable for the legal costs of the court’s intervention.
The ANC’s national executive committee will meet from Thursday, and the Sassa matter is likely to take centre stage. On Monday, the technical team involved in the grants tender will brief the party’s top brass.
President Jacob Zuma, after embarrassingly denigrating SA’s democracy in Parliament a day before the Constitutional Court delivered its judgment, has gone into damage control mode. As the meeting of his top officials in the party approached, he announced that he would be taking charge of the political solution to the administration of grants. He “apologised unreservedly” for the fiasco, after belittling MPs in Parliament who described it as a crisis.
But in his attempt to paper over the deep anger this issue has created in the ANC and society, his characteristic bizarre political machinations are still at play. Many officials at the social security agency are baffled and deeply suspicious about his motives.
Aside from the officials’ fears that he will continue to back Dlamini despite her appalling handling of the matter and the Constitutional Court ’s damning judgment of her abilities, there is confusion about the committee that Zuma announced he would chair.
On Saturday he said he would chair an interministerial committee on comprehensive social security reforms — a committee that he established in 2016 to deal with necessary reforms in a policy process currently before the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).
A day before the Constitutional Court judgment was handed down, the Cabinet emerged with a decision to put in place a task team of ministers to oversee Sassa’s new tender to pay grants and ensure that payments would be made on April 1.
Zuma’s statement on Saturday was curious because the payment of grants is an administrative, technical and legal matter. The social security reform process is a policy matter.
As the head of government business and responsible for overseeing the Nedlac process, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa should be leading the committee.
Ramaphosa led the successful talks on the national minimum wage — a process that Cosatu, a key player in the discussions — argues goes hand in hand with comprehensive social security reform.
Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe was not selected by Zuma to serve on the expanded interministerial committee. A cynic would be forgiven for thinking that the likely reason for this exclusion is that Radebe blocked the signing of a new contract between Sassa and Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) — which was clearly what Dlamini, one of Zuma’s key allies, was angling for.
According to court papers, an interim contract between CPS and Sassa was not signed after the ministerial task team established by the Cabinet, led by Radebe, instructed that the negotiations be terminated and new negotiations begun only when the Treasury gave written consent.
The mandate of Zuma’s expanded interministerial committee is confusing.
It is clear that Luthuli House believes Dlamini should account for the crisis she caused, and so do at least four of the ANC’s top six leaders — excluding the president. The South African Communist Party has added an interesting twist to the public’s demand: if Dlamini is not held accountable, Zuma’s handling of the matter could result in calls for him to be removed.
The ANC’s integrity committee is also involved in deciding the outcome, and Cabinet ministers have expressed support for officials who tried to ensure that Dlamini did the right thing.
Zuma and his allies are clearly on the back foot, which is probably why he is conniving to take charge of the process — in a somewhat convoluted way.
The break-in at the office of the chief justice and attack on the home of former social development director-general Zane Dangor are intensely worrying and an indication of an attempt to intimidate.
The choice Zuma now faces is whether to risk his support for Dlamini — his political ally in the ANC’s succession race — or dump her in the face of a rising tide of anger and frustration within his party and its electoral support base over her handling of a new tender to ensure 17-million vulnerable people have food.
A CYNIC WOULD BE FORGIVEN FOR THINKING THE LIKELY REASON FOR THIS EXCLUSION IS THAT RADEBE BLOCKED THE SIGNING OF A NEW CONTRACT