Dlamini agrees to Sassa public inquiry, but doesn’t want Moseneke as chair

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has reportedly agreed to a public inquiry into whether she should personally pay the legal costs of the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) grant payment debacle out of her own pocket.

But this is on condition that former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke does not chair the probe.

eNCA reported on Monday the Constitutional Court would decide which retired judge would lead the inquiry said to be the first of its kind in the country since the dawn of democracy.

The probe follows last month’s ruling by the ConCourt that the inquiry should be set up to determine the issues relating to the establishment of workstreams, allegedly appointed by the minister, that formed parallel structures to the operations of Sassa and flouted National Treasury’s procurement rules.

The controversial workstreams were tasked with dealing with the social grant payment crisis that gripped the country earlier this year in March when the contract of current service provider Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) was due to expire in April after the ConCourt found in 2014 the contract between CPS and Sassa was illegal.

The ConCourt was scathing of Sassa and Dlamini’s “extraordinary conduct” when it was forced to extend the existing contract with CPS for a year on March 17 after the grant payment agency and the department of social development failed to secure the delivery of grants with a new service provider.

Dlamini now wants retired chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, Justice Yvonne Mokgoro or former judge president Bernard Ngoepe to head the inquiry, but she has not provided reasons why she is opposed to Moseneke. Meanwhile, ‘friends of the court’ – Treasury, Sassa, Freedom Under Law and Black Sash – all want Moseneke to lead the investigation.

The minister, according to eNCA, would have to explain her conduct during the inquiry as to why she should not be held personally liable for the social grant payment crisis. The retired judge would also have the power to call any witnesses relevant to the investigation.

But Dlamini apparently wants the power to start the inquiry with her own witnesses and to lead their evidence with her own legal team.

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