Bathabile Dlamini shows up to face SCOPA
Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini arrived at Parliament to report and answer questions in front of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) this morning.
Dlamini has come under fire over the payment of social grants to more than 17 million recipients from 1 April. This after the Constitutional Court ruled that the appointment of service provider, Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), was unlawful.
The ruling was made in 2014 and the Constitutional Court gave the department three years to rectify the matter. Concern mounted when it was announced no new agreement has been signed, sealed and approved by the Constitutional Court yet. The current contract with CPS comes to an end on March 31 2017.
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Dlamini explained to the committee why it has taken so long to find a company to pay the social grants and the processes they went through.
"The issue of grants, I agree, is very important and I don't want South Africans to think I am arrogant," says Dlamini.
Dlamini says they felt that they had to apologise to for the commotion and misunderstanding due the reports they have been receiving.
"Never mind that we've been saying that we will be paying on 1 April 2017. Never mind that the technical team had sat to discuss the matter and made their recommendation," says Dlamini.
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