Sassa suspends tender to pay out social grants

SOCIAL Development Minister Susan Shabangu has defended South African Social Security Agency’s (Sassa) decision to suspend the tender for the cash payments to 2.5 million social grant beneficiaries.

Shabangu said the suspension was due to “challenges” with the tender.

The tender is to replace Cash Paymaster Services’ (CPS), which will be phased out in September after its contract was extended by the Constitutional Court for six months.

Briefing the social development portfolio committee yesterday, Shabangu said the suspension of the tender was done on March 23 and the Constitutional Court notified last Monday.

“We did that because there were challenges. When we identify the challenges, we cannot just watch them and fold our arms because that would see us in court forever,” Shabangu said.

“We want to get out of court. We want to run Sassa without being managed by courts,” she said.

Shabangu would not say what the challenges are other than to say: “It is correct when you identify a problem, you act on it.”

It was previously reported that the suspension was to allow an adequate period for Sassa to consider the appointment of individuals with knowledge and expertise to evaluate the technical aspects of the bids.

The minister was adamant a new contract would be in place before September.

“We really want to comply with the court.

“We are not looking for an extension from the court because we are saying we want to comply,” she said.

“Come September, everything must be on track when it comes to 2.5 million payments which is done by CPS.”

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Shabangu said beneficiaries would still receive their grant via banks, merchants and paypoints.

Shabangu also distanced the Sassa and the department from the R10 charged from beneficiaries by Grindrod for using their social grant cards.

Grindrod was hired by National Treasury to facilitate cash payments until June.

“We never agreed that they must pay themselves R10,” Shabangu said.

“It is not us who said they must charge the beneficiaries. They negotiated with treasury to cover their losses.”