Perjury conviction could ruin Dlamini’s travel plans for next 10 years

She almost single-handedly crashed the grant payment system, was found by the Constitutional Court to have
misled the court and now former social development minister Bathabile Dlamini’s chickens have come home to roost as the National Prosecuting Authority finally moves to act on the corpse of her credibility.

Perjury sentences can vary widely, from jail time to being force to perform community service.

The move to prosecute her for allegedly lying is being hailed as a strong message to public officials that they will be held personally accountable legally for failing to do their jobs.

In a letter Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions Rodney de Kock sent last week to the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Cals) which represented The Black Sash in the Constitutional Court case he said a decision had been taken to prosecute Dlamini “of perjury, alternatively contravening section 38[5][b] of the Superior Courts Act 10 of 2013 [giving false evidence]”.

She has been summonsed to appear in the Johannesburg Regional Court next month. So, more than four years on, the 2017 grants payment crisis is still coming back to bite Dlamini.

In 2018, the Constitutional Court slapped Dlamini with hefty personal costs which she only ended up paying this year over what it described as, at best, her “reckless and grossly negligent” conduct in the case The Black Sash brought against her over the saga.

This after the state’s failure to appoint a new grants facilitator after its contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) was declared invalid almost left some 17 million grant beneficiaries in the country high and dry.

After the Constitutional Court’s initial ruling – which saw it find in favour of The Black Sash and make an order for, among others, the payments to proceed an inquiry was instituted to probe Dlamini’s role in the crisis and help the bench come to a conclusion on the issue of costs.

Judge Bernard Ngoepe oversaw the inquiry and in his ensuing report found Dlamini to have been “evasive” as well as that she had not disclosed certain information specifically for fear of being held personally liable.

And in the end, not only did the Constitutional Court issue her with a personal costs order, it also referred his report to the country’s prosecuting authorities to establish if she had lied under oath and should be prosecuted.

It took three years but it now appears those authorities have come to a decision. Dlamini could be looking at
jail time with a conviction on the crime of perjury potentially punishable by direct imprisonment in terms of the Correctional Procedure Act.

But as criminal law expert and University of Pretoria lecturer Dr Llewelyn Curlewis yesterday said, there is no minimum prescribed sentence for perjury and if she were to land up with a conviction, then the accompanying sanction would ultimately be for the court to decide on.

“My gut feeling is she would be more likely to get something like correctional supervision [also provided for in the CPA],” Curlewis said.

He said the chief guiding principles of sentencing were the seriousness of the offence, the personal circumstances of the individual and the interests of society. If convicted, what Dlamini would carry with her as an albatross around her neck for years to come is a criminal record.

She could potentially have the black mark expunged, but only after 10 years, but it would complicate any plans she had to travel internationally or apply for a firearm licence in the interim.

The Black Sash and Cals have both welcomed the news that she
has now been charged.

“The decision to prosecute her for perjury sends the message once again that everyone is equal before the law and even those occupying some of our highest offices must be held accountable for their actions,” Cals attorney Ariella Scher said yesterday.

Rachel Bukasa, executive director at the Black Sash Trust, described this as “a significant moment for holding public officials personally accountable for the execution of their duties and to protect the integrity of the social security system”.

Nicole Fritz, the chief executive of Freedom Under Law, which was joined in the Constitutional Court case, also said it was “an important step in securing accountability in the long-running social grants crisis” but that there was still a way to go.

Dlamini could not be reached for comment yesterday.

– bernadettew@citizen.co.za