Social development spends R30m on legal fees since 2013

The department of social development has spent more than R30 million on legal fees since April 2013, a written reply to a Parliamentary question from the Democratic Alliance (DA) has revealed.

DA MP Malcolm Figg, who requested the department’s legal figures, on Wednesday said the R30.22 million legal bill was mostly accounted for by social assistance appeals, which are usually filed by potential grant recipients when their primary grant applications are rejected by the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa).

However, the amount doesn’t reflect the total figure social development spent on its Constitutional Court appearances over its contentious contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS).

This means the total figure is likely to be much higher, Figg said.

In the two years the department faced a court challenge over the contract with CPS, it had spent about R23 million on legal fees.

Between 2013 and 2014 it spent R10 million and the next financial year legal bills amounted to almost R13 million.

In 2015, the department’s legal bill dropped to R3.3 million and, last year, it spent around R3.5 million on legal costs.

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