Parliament - The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) is seeking to recover over R2 million spent on private bodyguards for former social development minister Bathabile Dlamini's children from its former chief executive.
In a written reply to a parliamentary question, Dlamini's successor, Susan Shabangu, said Sassa stopped paying for the bodyguards after the contract with the private security company expired in February 2015.
"Currently Sassa wrote to the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to make representation why the said amount should not be recovered from her, this forms part of preliminary steps to recover the amount concerned."
Dlamini came under fire from MPs in the standing committee on public accounts last year for getting Sassa to foot the bill for her children's security instead of involving the police.
The minister, who was part of a cabinet reshuffle in February and now heads the women's ministry, told MPs that Virginia Petersen, chief executive of Sassa at the time, allegedly approved the payment along with then social development director-general Coceko Pakade.