PREMIUM!
Will Bathabile Dlamini face parly tomorrow? It’s anyone’s guess
Scopa's Themba Godi said the committee looked forward to the meeting as it could not be indifferent to the levels of mismanagement displayed by the department.
Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini addresses a press conference in Pretoria on the social grants payment fiasco. Photo: ANA
Tuesday is not a day Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini is likely to be looking forward to as she faces off against angry MPs about the country’s social grants crisis.
The minister has been summoned to parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) over the SA Social Security Agency’s dire state of affairs.
Even though Dlamini has assured the public that social grants to 17 million people will be paid come the first of next month, she has dodged how much it will cost government.
Despite claims that a deal to open a new contract with current provider Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) has been concluded, Dlamini said negotiations on transfer costs were still underway.
Social development director-general Zane Dangor resigned last week after appearing before Scopa. He has said his resignation was based on a breakdown in relations and disagreements over how the department had handled the processes leading up to the March 30 deadline.
Chairperson of Scopa Themba Godi said the committee noted with “anger” Dangor’s departure over the “Sassa debacle”. Dangor had proved to be an honest and hard-working civil servant, but Dlamini’s interference was an entirely different story.
Department and Sassa officials, said Godi, had been “frustrated by Minister Bathabile Dlamini’s heavy-handed interference in Sassa’s administrative matters”.
Clearly, the negotiations with CPS had been handled to the disadvantage of the state and grant recipients, especially around the issue of deductions, which have been a “major thorn for recipients”.
“The minister must now take full responsibility for this. The department is clearly falling apart.”
Godi said Scopa was looking forward to the meeting.
“It is now becoming very difficult to explain the capability of the minister to effectively run the department and discharge of her responsibilities.
“Scopa cannot be quiet or indifferent to these levels of mismanagement which create unease and anxiety in the nation.”
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