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Grants crisis ‘resolved’ a day before Dlamini’s long-awaited Scopa date

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Bathabile Dlamini.
Bathabile Dlamini.

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini is expected to appear before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts today to account for the grant crisis and outline her plans.

But the social development department announced at a stakeholder briefing held at the four-star Cape Sun Hotel in Cape Town yesterday that the crisis over the invalid Cash Paymaster Services contract had been resolved through a brand new contract between the South African Social Security Agency and the contractor.

“On the first [of April] we start a new contract, but with the same service provider,’’ said Social Security Agency project leader Zodwa Mvulane.

“We do not have to go to court to request an extension. But we will go to court to explain ourselves,’’ said Mvulane.

Dlamini was called in by the Scopa committee after the matter dragged on for years with no clarification by her regarding the future of the social grants that were due to be paid to 17 million South Africans once the invalid contract came to an end at the end of this month. The contract was declared invalid by the Constitutional Court in 2014.

The validity of the new deal required approval from the treasury.

The treasury issued a statement on Friday, stating that its participation at this stage would amount to a conflict of interest because the procurement regulatory framework delegated responsibility to the accounting officer of the social services department. Also, the statement said, the social security agency and the social development department had already publicly announced that they would approach the national treasury at a later stage once a process had been adopted.

During a media briefing on Sunday, Dlamini said the media was blowing this issue out of proportion and was alarming the public by hanging on the possibilities of the social grants not being paid next month.

When the minister’s spokesperson, Lumka Oliphant was asked for a comment regarding the deal during an interview on radio station 702, she refused to speak in English, and said in isiZulu that she couldn’t speak on behalf of the treasury and say whether it would approve the deal or not.

While the minister claimed to be making progress towards solving the social grant issue, former ANC member of Parliament Vytjie Mentor, who claimed she had been offered a Cabinet position by the Gupta family but declined, posted a message on Facebook that a Gupta-linked firm would scoop the contract at the last minute.

“I am reliably informed that a Gupta company is going to be appointed on the 11th hour to distribute grants, they will do the biometrics cards too.”


When the public commented on her post, asking how sure she was about this, and asking for more information, she said she couldn’t reveal her source, but she could vouch that the information was reliable.

Mentor had not responded to queries by the time of publication.

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