Minister Bathabile Dlamini expected in Parliament
Bathabile Dlamini has been a no-show at several briefings
EMBATTLED Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini will be hauled before Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) amid a crisis which could result in a social grants blackout come April 1.
The elusive minister – who’s been a no-show at a number of parliamentary briefings – is expected before Scopa today.
It emerged yesterday that her department had, with just four weeks left, still not secured a new deal with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), as Sassa’s (South African Social Security Agency) controversial payment contract with CPS comes to an end on March 31.
An amount of R11 billion was paid out in social grants to more than 17 million recipients every month.
During a heated media briefing Dlamini said no one would go unpaid.
While seemingly side-stepping questions around the new and as-yet unsigned CPS deal, Treasury’s involvement and the recent resignation of her department’s Director-General Zane Dangor, Dlamini appeared to blame the media for the confusion.
“It is the media that has been perpetuating that we are not going to pay on April 1.Wait until March 31 or April 1… it is you who have created a lot of tension throughout the country,” she said to journalists.
The Sassa debacle had been described by the Treasury as a “self-made crisis”, but Dlamini denied criticism she had been idle.
In December 2014 a ministerial advisory committee report recommended that Sassa build its own payment system.
“Towards the end of 2014, Sassa advertised the tender, as per the court order, with the intention to appoint a new service provider for a period of five years for the payment of social grants,” the minister said.
“The new contract would have ended in 2019, at which point Sassa would have taken over. However, the tender was not awarded due to non-responsive bidders.”
Dlamini explained at the time that five companies bid for the tender and two withdrew towards the finalisation of the tender processes.
“The three that remained did not have the capacity to deal with the issues we had raised.” Dlamini also took a hard line on the use of biometric verification. “I will not back down on this requirement,” she told journalists.
“Our system has seen the worst form of abuse and theft… biometric verification must be at the centre of recipient authentication. It has saved government R2 bn and has provided Sassa with an accurate and secure transition environment.”
Dlamini said “consistent” work had been done in the last three years to prepare for the insourcing of the social grant payment system.
“Sassa remains committed to utilising the South African Post Office’s over 2 600 outlets as part of the payment vehicle for social grants in transition – and future phases.
“On the first of April, Sassa begins a new era in continued development, as has been the case in the past. No one will go unpaid,” Dlamini said.