Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini appears before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts on Tuesday.
The ANC in Scopa is “very worried” about how the social grants matter managed to reach the present level of uncertainty.
The party hoped the matter would be resolved, the ANC’s study group in the standing committee on public accounts said in a statement on Tuesday.
“We have full confidence in the announcement made by the executive that those who have been receiving social grants and still qualify, will continue to receive their grant pay-outs as from April 1 2017,” study group chairperson Nyami Booi said.
“We are, however, very worried about how things got to this stage and how processes have been managed.
“We trust that whatever agreement will be reached on the matter will be within the confines of the law.”
Booi said the party welcomed Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini’s appearance before Scopa earlier on Tuesday, and the decision to ask Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to appear next Tuesday.
They urged government to reconsider the outsourcing of such a core service delivery function to the private sector. Existing state institutions, such as the SA Post Office, should be used to carry out such functions in future, he said.
‘Dodging Dlamini’
The DA meanwhile called for a full parliamentary enquiry into “dodging Dlamini”.
DA MPs Bridget Masango and David Ross said Dlamini had once again dodged accountability before Scopa. She failed to adequately account for the social grant crisis and even tried to make an early exit during her appearance on Tuesday.
“Dodging accountability has now become the hallmark of the ANC and comes straight from the top as just yesterday President [Jacob] Zuma instructed officials to stop answering questions on Sassa.”
They wanted answers on the terms of the SA Social Security Agency’s (Sassa) new contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), the new cost, and about the resignation on Saturday of social development department director general Zane Dangor.
The DA had submitted an application to the Constitutional Court asking it to confirm that Dlamini and Sassa violated their duties. The party would hold a march to Dlamini’s office on Friday.
‘Daylight robbery’
The UDM said South Africans must not be blinded by the “self-created crisis” by the most “uncaring and reckless administration we have had since the dawn of democracy”.
“The fact that the negotiations with CPS are not concluded speaks volumes,” UDM MP Mncedisi Filtane said.
It was unacceptable that Gordhan and Dlamini could not resolve their differences over the matter.
“The fact that President Zuma’s ministers are not working together, to find a proper and legally correct solution to the problem, is a display of arrogance and a sign of a government without regard for the most vulnerable members of our society.”
Filtane said the public wanted full disclosure on CPS’s mobile services and deductions from grants. It was “one of the biggest daylight robbery acts,” he said. – News24