OUTA: Dlamini missed an opportunity to clarify Sassa debacle

“It is virtually five minutes to midnight and the minister is still playing mind games on the certainty of Sassa’s social grants debacle,” Outa portfolio director Ben Theron said.

“South Africa is a Constitutional democracy and we expect our political leaders to respect and act within the confines of the highest law of the land, with the minister of social development positioned by the president in order to serve the people of South Africa,” he said.

Sunday’s briefing on the future of social grants and the assurance that 17 million South Africans would be in good hands come the end of March, was nothing short of a disgrace.

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“We expected the minister to share the status of negotiations, the costs and the process to transfer responsibility from the contractor to the in-house disbursement management team. Instead, double-speak and denial was the order of the day with no clarity about the sudden resignation of Mr Zane Dangor, her director general, or the absence of the Sassa CEO at the briefing.

“After 60 minutes of obfuscation, misdirection, and an attempt to paint a picture of bliss, the outcome of her briefing was summed up into one sentence: ‘We will continue to pay the grants on 1st April’,” Theron said.

Members of the public were still none the wiser about the legality of the Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) contract after March 31; the cost involved of the revised contract after negotiation with CPS; why the Constitutional Court instruction was ignored and the process manipulated to create the current crisis; and what the handover period would be to the new service providers.

Dlamini’s media briefing appeared to be taking an opportunity to stave off the trouble she faced when having to appear before Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), who had to resort to issuing a summons to Dlamini to appear before the committee on Tuesday.

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Additionally, she had to appear before the Constitutional Court on March 15 to explain why the court’s ruling of a few years ago was not implemented despite ample time to do so.

“Outa believes that South Africa is facing its biggest crisis since democracy and the response from those in charge has been weak, contemptuous, and dismissive, leaving society to question whether this grave fiasco is due to gross incompetence or due to planned sabotage in an attempt to achieve another objective?” Theron said.

At the media conference earlier, Dlamini said CPS would continue to pay out social grants even after its contract expired at the end of the month.

But the social development department was quick to say “no deal” had yet been signed with CPS. Discussions with the service provider were ongoing.

Dlamini said the plan was to have a transition period at the end of which Sassa would take over the responsibility of paying out social grants. She said the South African Post Office would also be involved.

In 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled that Sassa’s contract with CPS was invalid because the tender process was flawed.