Dlamini fires adviser who tried to fix crisis

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has dismissed her special adviser, Sipho Shezi, who along with other officials had tried to find a way of ensuring the South African Social Security Agency could pay social grants without Cash Paymaster Services.

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has dismissed her special adviser, Sipho Shezi, who along with other officials had tried to find a way of ensuring the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) could pay social grants without Cash Paymaster Services (CPS). On Tuesday, Shezi confirmed that Dlamini had informed him in a letter on Friday that his services were no longer needed. She did not give him reasons.

“In terms of the contract, at any given time, the parties can decide to terminate the contract without giving notice,” Shezi said. “So I have respected that position and I would like to remain at that level.”

Lumka Oliphant, Dlamini’s spokeswoman, did not respond to requests for comment.

The minister has a second special adviser, Wiseman Magasela, who is also the department’s deputy directorgeneral (research and policy development).

He was appointed acting CE of Sassa for two days in the middle of the social grants fiasco in March 2017.

This was after CE Thokozani Magwaza and acting CE Thamo Mzobe were booked off sick.

Shezi had worked closely with former department director-general Zane Dangor on finding a solution to the grants debacle earlier in 2017.

Dangor resigned at the height of the crisis, citing a breakdown in the relationship between him and Dlamini. Shezi and Dangor had met with the banks and Mastercard in a bid to implement an open architecture system, which would have ended the CPS contract.

In an affidavit to the Constitutional Court on Monday, Dangor claimed that parallel decision-making structures in the form of workstreams may have been deliberate to ensure a continued relationship with CPS under conditions favourable to the company through a “selfcreated” emergency.

Dlamini and a few handpicked advisers had emerged as the clique that constructed the illegal new contract with CPS, excluding department and Sassa officials in the process.