Minister should quit over Sassa, says EFF
Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini should resign or be fired for her poor handling of the social grants disbursement issue, opposition parties said on Thursday.
Dlamini’s department made a commitment it would “seamlessly” take over the social grant payment system from Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) as of April 1 2017.
But in an about-turn, the department said on Wednesday the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) would have to apply to the Constitutional Court for an extension of the suspension of the invalidity order of the CPS contract so that CPS could continue paying social grants for another year.
Dlamini skipped key portfolio committee meetings meant to discuss the impending crisis, allegedly opting to attend to ANC Women’s League business. She is president of the league.
On Thursday, the DA said it would call on President Jacob Zuma to remove the responsibility for organising a new payment system from the “negligent” Dlamini and give it to Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan instead.
The party also plans to ask Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane to probe Dlamini for breaching the executive members ethics code by “willfully misleading” Parliament in her 2016 budget vote speech.
“The EFF in Parliament repeatedly asked the Department of Social Development in 2016 if Sassa would be ready to take over the mammoth task of distributing grants to the more than 17-million social grant recipients by April 1 2017, and we were always assured that this would be the case,” said EFF spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.
“As [recently] as November 2016, the Department of Social Development and Sassa were adamant that Sassa would be ready to take over the payment of grants.
“We are also of the firm view that the decision to delay setting up processes within Sassa to pay for social grants was a carefully manipulated decision by the corrupt clique surrounding the leadership of the ANC to continue looting state resources. We know for a fact that there are senior ANC leaders with close ties to CPS who stand to benefit from the extension of the contract,” Ndlozi said.
“The minister responsible for social development should step down and allow capable people to politically oversee the insourcing of the social grant payment system.”
Dlamini’s spokeswoman Lumka Oliphant was not available to respond to the claims.
Lobby group Black Sash said Sassa’s assumption that it would be able to contract with CPS depended on approval from CPS, the Constitutional Court and Treasury within 41 working days. This was “not only ambitious, but also reckless”, spokesman Elroy Paulus said.
“Sassa’s inaction has created this crisis.
“The agency has placed itself in this position by not adhering to the timelines ordered by the ConCourt.”