African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) president, Bathabile Dlamini after appearing at Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on 9 March 2022. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
South Africa’s disgraced former social development minister, Bathabile Dlamini, has been slapped with a suspended jail sentence and a hefty fine in her perjury case.
Dlamini, last month, was found guilty of perjury for lying under oath at an inquiry, which had investigated her role in the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) 2017 crisis.
At the time, Magistrate Betty Khumalo stated that she was satisfied that the former minister had lied under oath.
During her sentencing on Friday, Khumalo said she considered Dlamini’s personal and financial circumstances – including the fact that she is a 59-year-old single parent.
The magistrate indicated that Dlamini, as a former office-bearer, needed to be accountable due to her dishonest conduct.
“The accused is accordingly sentenced to a fine of R200,000 or four years imprisonment and half of the sentence is suspended for a period of five years on the condition that the accused is not convicted on the offence of perjury,” Khumalo ruled.
She further pointed out that Dlamini had the right to appeal her conviction and sentence in 14 days of the judgment.
Dlamini has until 29 April to pay R180,000 of her fine or she will be sent to jail.
The former minister has already accepted to pay R20,000 on Friday.
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In the last court appearance, Dlamini’s attorney Tshepiso Mphahlane pleaded with the court to be lenient on the former minister, arguing against direct imprisonment.
According to Mphahlane, the 59-year-old receives R40,000 pension as a former member of parliament (MP), in addition to the R70,000 she earns as the president of the ANC’s Women League (ANCWL).
Dlamini is currently paying university fees for her two children, aged 19 and 26, and her term as ANCWL president is expected to end in June 2022 unless elected again.
Her trial kicked off in November last year after having pleaded not guilty to the perjury charges against her.
She had sought to have the charges discharged, however, her application was dismissed by Khumalo in December.
Dlamini was accused of having lied under oath while giving testimony during an inquiry instituted by the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) in 2018.
In the inquiry, the former minister claimed that the work streams – she appointed in 2016 – did not report to her directly, and that she attended meetings to receive briefings.
She had set up these workstreams so that Sassa could take over the payment of social grants from former grants distributor, Cash Paymaster Services (CPS).
This was after the ConCourt found that the contract between Sassa and CPS was unlawful.
The irregular contract had been extended to 31 March 2017 after Sassa assured that it would be ready to take over the grant payment by 1 April 2017.
However, Sassa failed to meet this deadline.
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This resulted in the ConCourt ordering an inquiry to be established, which was chaired by Judge Bernard Ngoepe to investigate Dlamini’s conduct in the grant crisis.
Ngoepe found that Dlamini not only failed in her duties as minister, but also failed to disclose information to the inquiry for fear of being held liable for the Sassa crisis.
The former minister was ordered to pay litigation fees, which she paid in 2021.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) decided to prosecute Dlamini for perjury in August 2021, and a summons was then issued for her to appear in court.
The case against Dlamini originally stemmed from an application by Black Sash and Freedom Under Law (FUL) to the ConCourt in a bid to hold the former minister accountable for her role in the Sassa crisis, which placed the livelihoods of 17 million grant recipients at risk.
Dlamini could be forced to step aside from her position as ANCWL.
The ANC’s national executive committee (NEC), in March last year, resolved to implement the party’s 2017 Nasrec conference resolution.
The resolution states that all members facing criminal charges before a court of law must step aside from their positions and present themselves to the ANC’s integrity commission.
The former minister has already indicated that she will step aside if she is asked to do so.
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