Minister’s no-show at cabinet lekgotla raises ire of MPs

YESTERDAY’S Sassa presentation and Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini’s absence – this time to attend a cabinet lekgotla, left opposition MPs seething.

The IFP’s Liezl van der Merwe said Sassa had done nothing in four years.

“You’re being very ambitious in telling us there is no crisis if we must extend an illegal and invalid contract that was declared such in 2013.”

She said South Africans were “deeply upset over the deductions” from their accounts.

“You’re handing a bunch of crooks another lifeline,” she said.

The DA’s Evelyn Wilson said it seemed as if the situation had been “manipulated” to “force an emergency” that would compel the court to extend the contract.

ANC MPs who in November had taken Sassa to task, however rallied together, detailing how the ANC government had made social grants payments to millions of people since coming into power.

ANC MP Solomon Mabilo said their “bone of contention was whether come April, people will be paid, and the CEO has responded that yes, they will be paid”.

He said the call of “crisis, crisis, crisis is a complete negative narrative”.

They also rallied around Dlamini who was not in attendance. Opposition MPs objected to her putting party business ahead of the needs of the poor. Last week, the briefing was cancelled with MPs receiving an SMS saying she was attending an ANC lekgotla.

It emerged, however, that she was on ANC Women’s League business in Ethiopia.

Van der Merwe questioned whether Dlamini had misled parliament and asked committee chair Zoleka Capa who had been at the ANC lekgotla whether Dlamini had attended.

However, ANC MP Pulani Mogotsi said “when she is at that meeting, she is not a minister, but a comrade. We cannot expose our affairs to the opposition”.

Mabilo said it was part of an “agenda to distract us”.

“We know they are preoccupied with what happens because we are the ANC, and when the ANC sneezes, the whole country catches a cold but what she [Van der Merwe] is asking for is ridiculous, it’s absurd.”