March to Dlamini’s office
MAIMANE HEADS PROTEST ON SOCIAL GRANTS PAYOUT FIASCO
Hundreds of Democratic Alliance (DA) supporters, most of them young black South Africans, yesterday marched to the offices of the department of social development amid the uncertainty over social grant payments, clamouring for the head of Minister Bathabile Dlamini.
Calling her corrupt and incompetent, DA leader Mmusi Maimane was at the forefront of the march that demanded her immediate resignation.
Maimane said Dlamini was “playing a deadly game with the lives of our most vulnerable people, but she just doesn’t care”.
“Government must tell us now whether there is an agreement between Sassa [the South African Social Security Agency] and CPS [Cash Paymaster Services] for the delivery of social grants after March 31.
“If there is such an agreement, Dlamini must let us know what the terms of this agreement are, including the costs and timeframes,” Maimane said, before he handed over the memorandum to a representative of Dlamini’s department.
The DA is also demanding that the minister appear before a parliamentary inquiry to explain her actions and that of her department. “Today we say Dlamini must go, and she must go now,” Maimane said to loud cheers.
Earlier this week, Dlamini denied that her department and Sassa have entered into an agreement with service providers to pay social grants to 17 million beneficiaries on April 1, when its contract with CPS comes to an end.
However, Dlamini assured members of parliament’s standing committee on public accounts that grants would be paid at the beginning of next month.
Maimane said: “They [the ANC] count on the fact that people are conned into thinking their monthly grants is a gift from the ANC. This is a lie.
“Your grant is not a gift from the ANC. Your grant is guaranteed by the constitution. This issue of social grants is not an issue for black people, it’s not an issue for white people, Indian people or coloured people, it’s an issue for all of us, because all of us are affected if 17 million fellow South Africans face poverty,” Maimane said. –