Committee rejects CPS extension
• Sassa application panned by parliamentarians who cast doubt on its relationship with Sapo
The portfolio committee on social development has in principle rejected the extension of the Cash Paymaster Services contract with Sassa beyond April 1, when it is due to expire.
The portfolio committee on social development has in principle rejected the extension of the Cash Paymaster Services’ (CPS) Sassa contract beyond April 1, when it is due to expire.
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has applied to the Constitutional Court for a six-month extension of the contract so that social grants beneficiaries can be paid in cash at paypoints. Cash payments are needed for about 2.5million grant beneficiaries. This is not something the agency will have organised by end-March.
Business Day has also reported that CPS, a subsidiary of Net1, will be required to provide back-end banking systems for the entire social grant distribution process at least until the end of September.
Sassa acting CEO Pearl Bhengu told the committee on Wednesday that Sassa wanted to extend the contract in order to provide “back-up” should there be problems with the new payment system. She briefed the committee on progress made in implementing the Constitutional Court order on the takeover of payments by Sassa.
“While the committee agreed there is ... work to be done to ensure the smooth transition of service providers and to ensure the effective payment of social grants, timelines for the full transition will have to be adhered to,” committee chairwoman Rosemary Capa insisted.
Capa said the committee had not been informed of the request for an extension of the contract.
“We rejected the concept of the contract extension ... If there is an extension we need to know what specific activities will extend beyond the deadline,” Capa said. “We would not want to see CPS continue working with Sassa post-April 1, especially on payment issues, because then it would be an extension of an extension.”
CPS’s invalid contract with Sassa was extended by the Constitutional Court for one year until end-March.
Capa said the committee was concerned that there was little co-operation with Mark Barnes, CEO of the South African Post Office (Sapo), a critical partner in the new payment process.
DA spokeswoman on social development Bridget Masango complained that the committee had heard through the media that Sassa had asked for an extension when it should have asked the committee for this.
Masango nevertheless accepted that an extension was needed for practical purposes of securing cash payments. The committee expressed dissatisfaction with the department’s spokeswoman, Lumka Oliphant, who it said was making statements about matters before the committee.
Capa said that conflicting messages about the relationship between Sassa and Sapo were creating “panic” among social grant beneficiaries.