ANCWL says no

The African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) said yesterday it “unashamedly rejects” any proposal that the payment of South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) grants be outsourced to banks.

The leader of the ANCWL and Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini on Thursday rejected Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s proposal for banks and the Post Office to distribute social grants to 17 million beneficiaries.

Dlamini has approached the Constitutional Court to seek an extension of her department’s use of Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) to continue dispensing pensions and grants when its contract ends on March 31.

The minister said the proposal to distribute R10 billion in monthly grants through the banks and Post Office was not practical.

The ANCWL later weighed in, saying “major commercial banks in South Africa have proven their untrustworthiness and greediness through various unethical behaviour which amongst others has been reported by the Competition Commission”.

It made reference to this week’s Competition Commission announcement that it had referred 17 banks to its Tribunal for prosecution in a matter involving collusion in foreign exchange deals.

“It is the ANCWL’s view that transformation of the financial sector cannot be postponed any further.

“Outsourcing the payments for Sassa grants to any of the major commercial banks ... will be against the call for radical transformation of the financial sector.”

The league called on the government to establish the State Bank to transform the financial sector. Such a move would dismantle the “monopolisation of the financial sector … The ANC-led government must also support establishment of wholly black-owned banks with no less than 50 % of women ownership”.

It said the narrative of a looming crisis in the payment of grants “was being driven by the defenders of monopoly capital who would want to see Sassa outsourcing the services to one of the major banks in the country”.

Support to the plan would be “a conscious sabotage to the radical socioeconomic transformation agenda”.

It urged Sassa to intensify its outreach activities and meet social grant beneficiaries to assure them that payment of social grants will not to be affected. – ANA