Johannesburg - Despite growing calls for Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini to be fired or resign over the social pension grants contract scandal, she will hang on to her cabinet position.
This is according to political
analysts, commenting after President Jacob Zuma on Monday described calls for Dlamini’s axing as premature.
Zuma said there was no way the country could fail to pay its pensioners. “I would suggest that the nation should really calm down and wait for the date. Others are calling, for example, for the dismissal of the minister, but the date has not come. How do you judge a person before the event? I think it is somewhat worrying that people seem to be having preconceived ideas on the matter.”
The political analysts made their comments amid growing calls for Dlamini to step aside or be fired as the country is gripped by anxiety over whether the grants will be paid on April 1.
Her critics say she has failed to come up with a plan on how social grant beneficiaries will be paid.
On Sunday, Dlamini had a heated exchange with journalists in a media briefing on questions relating to the controversial social grant contract, three years after the Constitutional Court ordered her department to take over the distribution of pension grants.
The department has been in negotiations with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), claiming it was not ready to take over the grant payments, but Dlamini said on Sunday that no deal had been reached yet.
Political analyst Daniel Silke said that what was lacking in the country was accountability at the top political level. “There is no culture of accountability, and as a result, ministers get away with not performing.”
Silke also said the danger as a result of inefficiency in the pension grant contract warranted drastic action against Dlamini. “She must resign on her own accord or be asked to step aside. We need accountability across the board,” he said.
Another analyst, Ralph Mathekga, said the situation required "symbolic consequence" but the handling of the saga could not be resolved by getting rid of Dlamini. “You must not single out the minister. It is bigger and involves more than one department. There is a lot of politics involved here.”
He said the department should have made plans and appointed a new service provider without disrupting the payment of grants to recipients next month.
This, he said, did not take place because it appeared the political elite wanted CPS to continue to operate in paying out the grants or have the grants contract extended irregularly.
Mathekga also said there was no willingness to correct things pointed out by the Constitutional Court when it ruled that the tender was invalid.
Dlamini was due to appear before the standing committee on public accounts on Tuesday.
The minister – who had skipped a number
of official briefings on the grants payment
crisis – was a no-show at a meeting Scopa
arranged last week and it was not clear
whether she would appear on Tuesday.
Scopa spokesperson Themba Godi said Dlamini had not confirmed
her attendance. - Additional reporting by Siyabonga Sesant