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No clarity on social grants, Prasa, after Cabinet meeting

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Jeff Radebe. Picture: Theana Breugem
Jeff Radebe. Picture: Theana Breugem

President Jacob Zuma’s Cabinet will hold a special meeting next week to discuss social grants distributions as the March 31 deadline to cut ties with current grant distributor Cash Paymaster Services looms.

There is no new distributor in place as yet.

Jeff Radebe, the minister in the Presidency responsible for performance, monitoring and evaluation told journalists this morning that the Social Security Agency (Sassa) matter came up during a meeting of the Cabinet yesterday, but was postponed for a detailed discussion next week.

The 14-page Cabinet statement handed out to journalists at the press conference said nothing about Sassa or social grants.

“The matter was raised in Cabinet yesterday but it was decided that we will have a special time next week to discuss the matter in all its complexities, with all the teams that are involved in this matter,” said Radebe when journalists probed him.

“All of us are as concerned as everybody else as the deputy president [Cyril Ramaphosa] highlighted when he was answering questions in Parliament,” he added.

Radebe said the government was “deeply and totally committed” to ensuring that the more than 17 million social grant beneficiaries will receive their grants come April 1.

“That is why the Cabinet decided we will have full time next week so that we get comprehensive reports from all the teams, not only social development but national treasury and all the affected parties in this matter,” said Radebe.

He did not answer a number of direct questions about the saga, including his own role as the minister responsible for performance monitoring and evaluation.

“What did you say to Minister [Bathabile] Dlamini? How could we have arrived at the point that we are today that 17 million of the most vulnerable people are facing the possibility of not getting their social grants?

“Did you read her the riot act, if not, why not?” asked one journalist.

“It will be after that meeting that we will be able to indicate what the position of government is,” was all Radebe could say.

Cabinet did not discuss the crisis at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa either. This was because Transport Minister Dipuo Peters was not present because she had been booked off sick, explained Radebe.

In its statement, Cabinet voiced support for “the commitments made in the 2017 national budget to advance radical economic transformation and draw more South Africans into the economy towards inclusive growth”.

Journalists wanted to know whether Cabinet ministers were unanimous in their support for Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and the national budget he presented last week; in light of some of his colleagues not rising to applaud as was normal courtesy.

Radebe said he was surprised that a question could be asked and that Cabinet colleagues could be doubted in supporting their colleague.

“To emphasise this point, the budget is not just a budget of national treasury, it is the budget of the government even though national treasury plays a leading critical role but there is a team that deals with the matters of budget called the ministers committee on the budget and before the minister of finance delivers the budget vote as he did last time; Cabinet is fully briefed on all the details in terms of allocation of resources.”

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