Blame for grants crisis solely at your door, Madam Minister

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini just doesn’t comprehend the pivotal truth behind the looming human tragedy of the shambolic mishandling of the grants payouts.

Let us spell it out for the minister in simple terms. You are in charge. That makes you, Madam Minister, directly responsible for what happens – or in this case what didn’t happen as in ignoring a Constitutional Court directive issued in 2014 – under your watch.

We would suggest, Madam Minister, that it is certainly not about casting about for scapegoats to shoulder the blame for any perceived sins of commission or omission. The mantle of authority you accepted as being an integral part of your high office may not, you must accept at this juncture, always be donned as merely ritual regalia.

It is, we would further suggest, not a time for leaving others to pick up the fragmented pieces left behind by expecting the ConCourt to do just this. Your department’s record of blatantly ignoring directives from the highest judicial panel in the land is a matter of record.

It is, Madam Minister, placing the interests of the 17 million needy South Africans specifically placed in your charge, above your own imperatives.

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