Pretoria - Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane on Wednesday said she could not find substantiated evidence on allegations that former social development minister Bathabile Dlamini deliberately misled Parliament on the South African Social Security Agency's (Sassa) ability to pay grants.
The allegations relate to Dlamini telling Parliament that Sassa would be ready to take over grant payments system from Cash Paymaster Service (CPS) from April 2017.
"We found that the allegations that former minister of social development, Bathabile Dlamini, deliberately misled the National Assembly when she delivered her budget vote speech in which she made an undertaking on behalf of Sassa to take over management and control of the payment process that was performed by CPS from April 2017 and in doing so, violated the Executive Code of Ethics, could not be substantiated," Mkhwebane said.
The complaint against Dlamini was laid by Democratic Alliance member of Parliament Bridget Masango following claims that Dlamini knew from July 2015 of the inadequacies in Sassa to pay grant recipients on its own.
Masango complained that Dlamini delivered a budget speech in Parliament in which she stated that, "as reaffirmed by the ministerial advisory committee, Sassa is taking over the management and control of the payment process that is currently performed by a third party, from April 2017".