Dlamini defends costly Sassa decisions

Work streams reported to Dlamini and cost taxpayers R47 million

EMBATTLED Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has denied allegations that she interfered at the SA Social Services Agency (Sassa) in order to ensure that Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) continued to dispense social grants.

“Did you intend for CPS to have an extended life longer than that set out by the Constitutional Court?

“Did you harbour any ways to frustrate Sassa work to pay grants itself come April 2017?” asked her counsel, Ishmael Semenya.

Dlamini replied resounding “No”.

“If I did, I would be happy if anyone could point out that to me,” said Dlamini.

She was testifying at the inquiry into her role in the social grants debacle.

The inquiry is chaired by retired judge Bernard Ngoepe in Johannesburg.

The grants crisis saw rights group Black Sash taking the department to the Constitutional Court to ensure that over 17 million beneficiaries continued to receive grants, after the court ruled in 2014 that the CPS contract to dispense grants was invalid.

In March 2017, the Constitutional Court ordered that CPS continue to pay grants for a with a further 12 months, after it was found that Sassa was unable to take over.

Earlier in the day, Dlamini said none of the Sassa bosses had a problem with the work of appointed advisory groups called work streams.

“The work streams were never a problem for executives, starting from (former chief executive officer) Virginia Petersen.

“At the time of work streams at Sassa, I worked together with (Thokozani) Magwaza when he was acting deputy director-general of the department.

“They did a lot of work and did point out that it was not possible to finish work within the court’s deadline… them reporting to me directly did not mean that the work of the Sassa executives was being undermined.”

The contentious work streams were appointed to help Sassa provide a new service provider to take over the payment of social grants.

The work streams reported directly to Dlamini and cost taxpayers a reported R47 million. The appointment of the work streams did not go to tender due to time constraints, said Dlamini.

She added that appointing a company would have been expensive, hence the appointment of work streams.

She terminated work stream contracts last year after the Treasury informed the department that the appointments were illegal, as Sassa had not sought permission for a deviation from tender processes in time as required, rendering the project irregular.

The job of work streams was seen as parallel to that of Sassa officials, pitting Magwaza against Dlamini following his appointment as Sassa chief executive.

The Constitutional Court had to intervene last year in the social grants saga after the department failed to secure a new service provider to replace CPS, after the contract was found to be illegal by the court in 2014.

The court was forced to allow CPS grant distribution for 12 months, as the possibility of millions of beneficiaries not receiving grant payouts became imminent.