CAPE TOWN – A plan hatched by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) to subcontract grant payments sounds dubious, according to a number of opposition parties.
On Monday Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini declared that tenders will be issued this Friday for facilities Post Bank cannot provide. SA opposition parties have now come out and argued that these negotiations have not been discussed in good faith.
Post Bank most definitely can play a larger role in the payment of grants, according to both the DA and IFP.
“Somebody is not telling truth. And in fact, one should also be concerned about the process because the evaluation was done by a Sassa team and not an independent team,”, IFP member Liezl van der Merwe said on Monday.
“I don’t think it’s a fair assessment, I also don’t think the Post Office has been given a platform to actually present both what they were asked by Sassa and how they responded to it, ” DA representative Bridget Masango said.
All eyes will be on the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa), which will face a grilling on Tuesday from Scopa and the social development portfolio committee about compliance with the Concourt ruling and phasing-out of controversial Cash Paymaster Services.
“Sassa is not doing much to finalise the social grant payment contract other than to flounder ahead of the April 1 Constitutional Court deadline,” Themba Godi, the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) chairperson, told Independent Media on Monday.
“Sassa has waited for seven months of the 12 months and it's not doing much,” said Godi. “The way they manage this tender shows that they have not redeemed themselves as an institution that rises to the challenge.”
Godi made the comments ahead of today’s joint meeting of Scopa and the social development portfolio committee, which comes after Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini snubbed the committees’ last two meetings.