Bathabile Dlamini due in court for alleged perjury at social grants inquiry

Former social development minister Bathabile Dlamini is expected to appear in the Johannesburg Regional Court on Tuesday for perjury.

In August, the director of public prosecutions in Gauteng issued summons for the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) president to appear in court for alleged perjury or giving false evidence during a section 39 inquiry into the 2017 social grants crisis.

Update:  The case has been postponed to 1 October 2021.

The 2018 inquiry – which was chaired by Judge Bernard Ngoepe – was instituted by the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) after it had admonished Dlamini for the repeated extension of the unlawful contract between the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) and its former grants distributor, Cash Paymaster Services (CPS).

In his findings, Ngoepe found the former minister failed to disclose to the ConCourt the extent of her involvement in the social grants debacle. Dlamini was ordered by the ConCourt to pay a personal cost order of around R650,000 for her role in the social grants crisis.

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The section 39 inquiry report described Dlamini as an “evasive” witness who answered simple questions with “I don’t know”, “I don’t remember” or simply failing to answer at all.

In September 2018, the ConCourt then ordered Ngoepe’s report to be forwarded to the national director of public prosecutions to consider whether Dlamini had lied under oath and should be prosecuted for perjury.

Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe

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