The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has, as expected, conceded that its plan to take over the distribution of social grants to 17-million people by 1 April 2017 was over-ambitious and that the controversial contract with Net1/CPS will continue.
Lindy Wilson, shadow minister of social development, has asked Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini and Sassa to reveal the financial cost of their failure to prepare sufficiently to take over the distribution of R10-billion in social grants.
“It is now clear that Net1/CPS will continue with payments despite the fact that their tender was deemed irregular by the Constitutional Court,” Wilson states. “The South African public deserve to know on what terms this contract will be extended and, vitally, how much this major blunder will cost.”
Social Development director-general Zayn Dangor has confirmed that, despite having spent millions on “workstreams” dedicated to this task, Sassa is unprepared for the massive undertaking.
He says that Sassa will report to the Constitutional Court that it has failed to meet the targets and deadlines stipulated by the court in preparing for the takeover.
