Sassa fiasco reason to dismiss Dlamini

YOU would have thought that the outcome of last year’s local government elections, in which the ANC lost control of key metros, would have taught President Jacob Zuma and his government a thing or two about the importance of service delivery.

The party bled support in urban centres, with middle-class voters across the racial divide shunning the party of Nelson Mandela because of corruption scandals that have come to define the ANC under Zuma.

That the ANC remains the dominant political player is thanks largely to people in poor communities whose lives, over the years, have steadily improved as a result of government policies.

At the centre of these is the roll-out of social grants to more than 17 million people, the majority of whom would go to bed with empty stomachs without these grants.

Unemployment is growing, especially in areas that were previously designated for black people, and the inequality gap is widening. These social grants sustain many poor people and keep them from losing hope in the current dispensation.

However, this safety net to millions is under threat because of sheer incompetence and the apparent greed of a minister who thinks herself so powerful that she cannot be held to account by anyone, including parliament.

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini’s handling of the debacle relating to the payment of social grants beyond March 31 has been underscored by astonishing recklessness, dishonesty and shamefulness.

Here is a minister so determined to extend a contract deemed unlawful by the highest court in the land some two years ago that she is willing to risk having the elderly and the sick not getting their welfare money come April 1.

She has fought everyone, from her cabinet colleague Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to her own director-general, Zane Dangor, over her refusal to accept any social grant payment option that would exclude Cash Paymaster Services, the service provider found by the courts to have obtained the contract illegally.

Dangor quit this weekend because of disagreements with Dlamini and Thokozani Magwaza, the CEO of the South African Social Security Agency. Magwaza remains on sick leave amid claims that his fights with Dlamini may cause him to jump.

Sassa is by law responsible for the distributing of social grants.

There has never been a cabinet minister more deserving than Dlamini to be fired.

But, sadly, the fate of 17 million grant recipients may not be something that is uppermost in the president’s mind. Instead of axing her, Zuma seems to be protecting Dlamini because — as ANC Women’s League president — she can help him handpick his successor as party president.