Minister may not appeal

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini, pictured, the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) and the Black Sash may not appeal against a court ruling allowing deductions from social grants to continue.

Acting Judge Corrie van der Westhuizen yesterday dismissed their applications for leave to appeal against his ruling in May that banks, including Grindrod Bank, were entitled to make deductions from social grants as debit orders constituted the payment of legitimate debt.

He said there was no reasonable prospect that another court would rule that the Grindrod bank accounts of social grant recipients should be treated differently from any other bank accounts.

The ruling followed an application by Net1 Technologies, which is presently in charge of administering payments to social grant recipient beneficiaries through its subsidiary company, Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), Grindrod Bank and other institutions about the interpretation of amendments to social assistance regulations.

Sassa and the department interpreted the new regulations as prohibiting all electronic debits and stop orders from beneficiary accounts held at Grindrod Bank, except for one funeral policy, and instructed CPS to stop processing debit orders.

Net1, CPS and Grindrod were criminally charged when they resisted implementation of the instruction which affected the operation of over 10 million beneficiary bank accounts.