Sassa bosses take it easy amid crisis

WARNINGS: FALL ON DEAF EARS AS MILLIONS WAIT

As time ran out, they went on Christmas holidays, only having the first meeting on March 1.

Despite having 10 million recipients dependent on Sassa grants, the agency did nothing to find a distribution replacement, despite urgent warnings, court documents show.

Starting with meetings dating back to early 2016, the responding affidavit filed by Cash Paymaster Services’ (CPS) provides a record of the invitations, deadlines, and requests the company made to Sassa to engage on transition arrangements.

These were all to no avail until parties finally met for the first time on March 1, exactly one month before the ConCourt deadline.

The complete affidavit includes copies of the correspondence between Net1 founder Serge Belamant, Sassa executives and Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini.

The affidavit describes the timeline of events in the lead up to the current crisis. As far back as May 24 2016, CPS expressed its concern to Sassa over the short period remaining for a “phase-in/ phase-out strategy” and proposed alternative solutions to Sassa.

In a letter addressed to The Executive Manager: Special Projects Sassa, a Miss Mvulane, CPS notes “experience has demonstrated that it would take more than a year to replace all the [Sassa] cards in issue”.

Net1 noted a replacement system would need to issue new cards. This process cost Net1 over R1 billion in 2012/12, requiring thousands of temporary staff and centres to register seven million urban beneficiaries and three million rural ones.

“Sassa should therefore consider both the timing issues, as well as the cost it will incur to ensure a smooth takeover that would not result in massive disruptions in the payment process – another critical element of the Constitutional Court’s ruling,” Belamant says.

What happened next? Nothing. Until December 9, 2016, when CPS, which was “increasingly concerned” with the lack of communication from Sassa, chose to write directly to Dlamini.

In the letter, which was again signed by Net-1’s Belamant, all the information that his company had supplied to Sassa’s advisory committee was cited, as well as work undertaken with other technology partners, that included the likes of the South African Reserve Bank, Payments Associations of South Africa, Grindrod Bank and Mastercard, to prolong the lifespan of the Sassa cards that were due to expire on April 1.

Belamant says Net1 has “developed and tested a plan that will ensure continuity but such plan requires your urgent endorsement and commitment”.

He imposed a deadline of December 19 for Dlamini to respond.

Sassa on December 22, 2016, expressed an intent to engage, but only on January 5. The meeting eventually took place on March 1 – one month before the contract was due to expire.