Vytjie Mentor drops bombshell: Guptas to get Sassa contract?

Former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor has once again thrown the cat among the pigeons when she declared that a Gupta-linked company might get the tender to distribute social grants payments next month.

She wrote on Facebook that she had been reliably informed that “a Gupta family Company is going to be appointed on the 11th hour to distribute grants. They will do the biometrics cards too.”

Mentor became famous overnight when she alleged that the Gupta family had offered her a Cabinet position, and she declined it as it was improper. She claimed President Jacob Zuma had been in the next room at the Guptas’ Saxonwold home the entire time.

She has said she has no doubt that she would be able to back up her claims should she be taken to court.

The Gupta family and the politicians linked to them have consistently denied any knowledge of wrongdoing between the family and government, and have always dismissed Mentor’s allegations with contempt every time they arise.

Mentor is just one of many senior politicians who have made claims against the Gupta family, known to be close to the president and some of his family members, but she refused to give testimony to the ANC when it opened an investigation into the matter. Mentor did go to the police, who sent the case she opened to the Hawks.

Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini briefed the media in Tshwane on Sunday morning on the progress her department had made regarding the “institutionalisation of the social grants payment system within the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) beyond the 31st March 2017 when the current contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) expires”.

She made it clear that grant beneficiaries would receive their payments on April 1, but despite saying on Friday that she had struck a new deal with CPS after three days of negotiation, she made an about-turn on Sunday that there was not a deal as yet.

There was no signed-off contract yet with CPS, her department confirmed. As a result, no information was released on the amount CPS might charge to continue to provide a service.

It’s also possible that CPS might be a red herring, as Mentor now alleges, and an entirely new company may be used. In either event, it would constitute a major deviation from proper tender processes.

Dlamini refused to answer any questions on the possible legal hurdles of any new deal with CPS, which was originally given the tender illegally.

If the Guptas have the capacity to pay 17 million grants to beneficiaries, it’s not known which of their companies would be involved with this, though they have interests in several business sectors, including IT.

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