MPs roast Dlamini for ‘failing’ to deal with looming grants crisis

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini was on Tuesday at pains to emphasise to unrelenting MPs of parliament’s key watchdog body that social grants would be paid at the start of next month.

But the long-awaited contract with service provider Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) is yet to be signed and sealed.

Facing a line of fire from MPs of the standing committee on public accounts, Dlamini said the finalisation of negotiations was due at the end of the week.

According to the minister, an announcement would then be made.

“I did say we would pay on the first of April and have now said so for a number of times,” Dlamini said.

“We will make an announcement after receiving the report from the technical team.”

This gives the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) and CPS two weeks to put in place plans to render payments to the 17 million social grant beneficiaries.

But MPs were not happy that a process to find a new service provider had not started in 2014, after the Constitutional Court ruling that CPS’s contract was invalid.

Chairperson of the committee Themba Godi said: “Right from the beginning, the contract with CPS had a timeframe.

“How then did we get into this emergency? I think the Constitutional Court process merely sped us on?”

Economic Freedom fighters MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said the process had showed an “avalanche of failures” to stick to deadlines.

“Why should we trust the minister?” Ndlozi asked.

Democratic Alliance MP David Ross said it was “rather late in the day to still try and close the deal”.

Inkatha Freedom Party MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa, who repeatedly shook his head and stared up at the ceiling with his hands above his head, said: “In this entire debacle, there is a failure to lead and failure to account … there is lack of leadership at this time.”

Dlamini tried to avoid blame, adding that as the executive authority, she could only intervene “when you see nothing is being done”.

She said Sassa officials had not provided her with a report last year: “I had to call them and say ‘please account’.

“If anyone wants to define that as incompetence and an avalanche of failures, you can’t stop people from passing those insinuations.”

Dlamini blamed the media and political parties for inciting panic that beneficiaries would not get their grants on April 1.

Treasury and Sassa also played a part in the delays, she claimed.

ANC MP Nyamezeli Booi then asked if the minister was suggesting that Sassa officials had not done their work.

Ndlozi said: “You appointed the CEO. You are blaming them today, which means you are the one [responsible]. These are your failures, minister. So, why should you still be the minister?”

DA MP Tim Brauteseth asked if the crisis “goes belly up” because Treasury hadn’t allocated more funding, would it also be to blame? Treasury has said it would not fork out any more money over the budgeted R2.6 billion.

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