Minister law unto herself

THE question we need to ask about the SA Social Security Agency’s crisis over the payment of social grants is not why we have found ourselves in the mess we are in.

The more pertinent question is why the social services ministry that has displayed total inefficiency in handling this crisis and presided over the imminent collapse of the social grant system has not been made to account for its self-created disaster.

In April 2014 the Constitutional Court told Sassa, which falls under the ministry, to reissue the R10-billion social grants contract.

At the time the court gave the agency until October 2015 to comply with its decision which the agency ignored.

Interestingly, the agency at the time submitted that it was in a process to implement a five-phase plan to capacitate itself to take over the disbursement of social grants.

It communicated through the media that its initial plan had always been to empower the agency to take over the distribution of grants and not rely on outsourcing the function to private companies.

Noting the ultimate deadline of the CPS contract, which is March 31 this year, it said its plan would ensure it was ready to do this job by the end of 2016.

Now, more than two years after the Constitutional Court order, the agency has not only violated the order, but curiously had expected the same court to bail it out, arguing that the extension of the CPS contract was in the interest of millions of poor South Africans who would be stranded if it was not renewed for a year.

The agency withdrew its court application yesterday.

This either talks to the absolute incompetence of the ministry or a more worrying reason that is the total disregard of the law of the land.

What are we to make of Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini who has failed to act despite being reminded of the duty when the Treasury pointed out it would not be party to the suggestion to extend the CPS contract because it would clearly be going against the decision by the Constitutional Court.

Not only did the ministry have more than enough time to carry out the order and prepare for an alternative, but the minister’s ducking and diving to avoid being interrogated about the mounting crisis says she has become a law unto herself.

It does not make sense why the ministry has been hellbent on ignoring the highest court in our land and effectively still extend the CPS contract.

Who is this insane decision serving?

And equally important is the lack of action from the minister’s principal, who is ignoring his duty of making the minister account for this mess.

Can President Jacob Zuma afford to have one of his key ministers giving the Constitutional Court a fat middle finger?