Dlamini ordered to break deadlock
CSIR found Sapo competent to deliver grants
THE SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) and the SA Post Office (Sapo) will return to the negotiating table after significant pressure from MPs.
MPs in Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) and the portfolio committee on social development are fed up that the two parties have not reached an agreement over the payment of social grants, just five months before the contract of the current service provider Cash Paymaster Services, a private firm, runs out.
“We are hoping from your side that Sassa and Sapo come back with an agreement,” Scopa chairperson Themba Godi said, after getting Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini and Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Siyabonga Cwele to instruct their officials to break the deadlock.
On Monday, Dlamini said Sapo could not take over the payment of social grants to around 17 million South Africans as it fell short on three of four key functions to do so. These included that it could not print the required 4.2 million beneficiary cards per annum that were required, or vouch for a sub-contractor who would do so and that it could not provide a full-scale banking service that includes a disbursement account linked to a card with biometric verification data, and assure that cards were compliant with all ATMs.
This was strongly disputed by Sapo chief executive Mark Barnes, who told MPs that Sapo was more than ready to start disbursing grants through Sapo and its fully-fledged Post Bank.
“We don’t need to register as a merchant bank. The receipt of social grants is predominantly a one-way transaction,” Barnes pointed out.
He said the CSIR had conducted an independent assessment of Sapo, testing them against 218 performance categories.
“There were only eight where the CSIR report said requirements weren’t met. I went to a government school and 97% was a pass, not a fail, and that’s what we achieved according to the CSIR evaluation,” said Barnes.