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Sassa chief executive Thokozani Magwaza’s mysterious absence from Parliament’s public accounts committee’s hearing on Sassa’s controversial contract with Cash Paymaster Services has cast even more doubt on the agency.
The chief executive was due to appear before thestanding committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday morning to answer questions about the contract which cost Sassa R10-billion.
Magwaza’s absence was immediately noticed in Parliament. In his place, sat Thamo Mzobe, who was appointed Sassa acting chief executive on Tuesday morning. The Star reported earlier that Magwaza had been suspended, but the department of social development’s director general Zane Dangor said that Magwaza had been booked off on sick leave since last Friday.
Dangor said that Magwaza had been granted 12 days’ leave due to hypertension.
However, Magwaza is a key player in the current crisis Sassa finds itself in with regards to grant payments. In February, Magwaza claimed that he was responsible for irregular expenditure in Sassa. The agency was found to have spent an extra R316-million on the contract last year to re-register grant beneficiaries.
The Scopa hearing on the contract comes as Sassa is expected to negotiate an extension of the CPS contract to pay grants by March 31. If Sassa cannot find a service provider for grant payments, then 17-million South Africans will be in limbo
However, ANC MPs in Parliament said on Tuesday that Magwaza’s absence was grounds for the hearings to be postponed. Mnyamezeli Booi, who sits on the ANC benches, attempted to convince the chair of the committee, Themba Godi, that it would be a “futile exercise” for the hearings to continue because Mzobe lacked knowledge of the irregular expenditure on the CPS contract.
“The acting CEO had been endorsed at 10.05am this morning,” said Booi. “She looks like a flower.”
Godi, a member of the African People’s Convention, swept the ANC’s arguments aside. He responded that Zodwa Mvulane, the project manager in charge of Sassa’s plan to develop its own internal grant payment system, should have intimate knowledge of the contract.
“She is the person who would be running with the issue on a daily basis … and will report to the CEO,” Godi said.
The ANC MPs attempt to get the matter postponed came as Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini was also curiously absent from the hearings.
Dlamini is currently chairing the social cluster briefing in Parliament, but the briefing began two hours after the Scopa hearing.
Dlamini did not notify Scopa that she would be absent.
Last week, ANC MPs rallied behind Dlamini when she appeared before Parliament to explain Sassa’s plan for a grant payment system. ANC members defended Dlamini from criticism, and answered on her behalf.
Another ANC MP said that Dlamini’s absence also justified a postponement of the hearing.
“Her absence here today is affecting the whole session and the fact that the department can not provide answers on simple things, we’re going to have problems,” the MP said.
“I don’t think it’s going to be possible for us to continue.”
A ticking timebomb
Sassa’s contract with CPS expires on March 31. On the next day, there will be 17-million South Africans waiting for their grants to be paid.
Those payments rely on Sassa’s ability to secure an extended contract with CPS. In 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled that the existing contract is unlawful and invalid, but Sassa has said the safest way it can make payments come April 1 is through an extension of that contract.
Negotiations with CPS have not yet begun, however. Sassa is expected to begin negotiations with CPS on Wednesday where the terms for a new contract will be under discussion. Once an agreement is signed, Sassa will then have to approach the Concourt to obtain permission for CPS to continue as Sassa’s service provider.
But it is unclear if Sassa will be going to court to obtain a deviation order for the extension of the contract. Sassa has said that it will go to court to file supplementary papers on the progress Sassa has made with regards to the grant payment system.
If Sassa does not obtain a deviation order, its extended contract with CPS will be unlawful.
In the meantime, with 31 days left, Sassa has not yet secured a plan for grant payments to be paid by April 1.