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Social Development Minister Susan Shabangu has refused to sign off on the South African Social Security Agency’s (Sassa) annual performance and budget plan which had been drafted by her predecessor Bathabile Dlamini and former Sassa chief executive Pearl Bhengu.
Shabangu has also suspended a new tender which would have taken over grant payments from Cash Paymaster Services (CPS).
Shabangu was speaking in Parliament on Wednesday to explain why she had suspended the process to get a new tender to take over grant payments.
She said the processes had to be suspended due to “challenges” with the tender and was firm in her assurance that social grant payouts would not be affected.
“We suspended the tender of the 2.5 million people’s payment because there were challenges … in the process of the tender. When we identify challenges, we cannot just watch them and fold our arms.
“We want to get out of the courts and run Sassa, without being managed by the courts. The courts cannot continue being frustrated by us. We’ve got to pull up our socks and make sure we do the right thing,” Shabangu told the parliamentary committee.
Shabangu also put on record that Bhengu had resigned and had been replaced by the agency’s chief information officer Abraham Mahlangu.
DA spokesperson on social development, Bridget Masango, said Bhengu’s departure did not “absolve her from accountability nor does it entitle her to a severance package”.
Shabangu said Bhengu had put in a request to return to her previous position as Sassa’s regional manager for KwaZulu-Natal, which she accepted.
On the R10 banking fee that Grindrod Bank began charging grant beneficiaries last month, Shabangu said Sassa had not agreed to the bank charge and would be looking into the issue.
Grindrod Bank currently has an arrangement with Treasury where it will facilitate the payment of social grants for the next three months.
In 2017, the Constitutional Court said that CPS could carry on distributing social grants until September. Shabangu told the committee that Sassa wants to comply with the Constitutional Court’s September deadline, saying that the agency was not looking for an extension.
In March this year, Sassa asked the Constitutional Court to extend the CPS contract, which was declared invalid in 2014.
