Will Minister Dlamini account for the social grants crisis?
Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini is set to address the media today on the controversy surrounding the payment of social grants.
Dlamini was meant to yesterday appear before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts in an investigation into the Social Security Agency's R1-billion of irregular expenditure.
SASSA failed to give Parliament answers yesterday on the way forward in implementing the new grant system, scheduled for April 1, set to deliver payouts to 17-million South Africans.
In 2014, the Constitutional Court found that SASSA's contract with Cash Paymaster Services was illegal. The court gave the agency until April 1 this year to find a new service provider.
The IFP's Mkhuleko Hlengwa slammed SASSA for wanting to negotiate a new contract with CPS.
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Hlengwa then called for the Minister to be hauled before the committee.
"I'm pleading with you, Chair, to get the minister here because the irregularities of this entire transaction are escalating. It is our responsibility here to ensure it doesn't happen. We cannot be expected to sit back and allow a bunch of crooks to be negotiated with. It's absolutely not fair. The minister needs to clarify the commitments she made at our last meeting," he said.
Meanwhile, SASSA has now asked the ConCourt to allow it to negotiate a brand new contract with CPS.