History will judge Dlamini harshly

WHO really knows why Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini allowed farce to dictate the process of appointing a new paymaster to distribute welfare grants.

With just over two weeks to go until the current contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) terminates, the public is none the wiser about the department’s succession plan.

Until now, officials – but mostly Dlamini – have demonstrated an appalling insouciance.

Their feeble assurances that all will be well have served only to heighten concerns that the master plan involves a generous amount of thumb-sucking and monumental faith in a wing and a prayer.

But Sunday newspaper City Press has also accused Dlamini of obstructionism.

She was the one, according to their lead report yesterday, who shot down three attempts by SA Social Security Agency chief executive Thokozani Magwaza to petition the Constitutional Court for guidance.

It’s a curious attitude and is made all the more intriguing by a Sunday Times story alleging Michael Hulley, lawyer and presidential adviser, was the back channel through which Dlamini took her instructions to employ CPS again, at all costs.

The Constitutional Court is understandably aggrieved by the resultant chaos. It was this august institution that deemed the current contract with CPS invalid.

Now it wants to know why the department acted in the manner it did and without informing the court.

The deadline to respond to these and other questions is tomorrow.

Hopefully, from this, Dlamini’s motivations will become clearer, along with Hulley’s role in a series of alleged secret meetings he held with the minister.

Dlamini may yet incur the wrath of the court.

She has been defiant in parliament and hostile in the presence of journalists asking legitimate questions.

As The Herald discovered recently, some grant beneficiaries in Port Elizabeth are oblivious to the drama.

How, you have to wonder, will Dlamini account to those people if the unthinkable happens and payments are stalled?

History will judge her very harshly for this mess.