Constitutional Court wants answers from Minister Dlamini and Sassa
The Constitutional Court wants answers from Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini and the South Africa Social Security Agency (Sassa) over the payment of social grants.
There is widespread concern over the payment of social grants to 17 million of the country's poorest from 1 April 2017, with the contract with CPS coming to an end on the last day of March.
This comes after the Constitutional Court ruled in 2014 that the contract with CPS was invalid and a new tender had to be reissued and come into effect on 1 April 2017.
Finding themselves in the middle of the social grants payment crisis and a looming deadline, Minister Dlamini and Sassa now has to answer to the highest court in the land on how grants will be paid.
Dlamini admitted they still do not have a plan in place to pay social grants at the end of the month, when the current contract with CPS expires when she faced the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) yesterday.
Sassa withdrew its Constitutional Court application over the future payment of social grants last week, saying it was engaging with CPS on the possibilities to assist with the transition.
Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng has set down the hearing for Wednesday 15 March, where the application for leave to intervene will be heard.
The court wants Sassa to explain who was responsible for determining on behalf of Sassa whether the agency itself would not be able to pay the grants, when the responsible person first became aware that it would not be able to pay the grants itself by the end of March and why the court was not informed.
The court also wants to know whether Sassa informed the minister and whether an agreement has been reached with CPS.
Mogoeng also wants to know whether Minister Dlamini and/or Sassa have any objections to independent monitoring of any agreement Sassa may have entered into with CPS.