DA to request that Minister Dlamini is formally summoned to Parliament

Following yesterday’s shambolic joint meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development and SCOPA, where Minister Bathabile Dlamini yet again failed to show up, members resolved to formally call on the Minister to appear before Parliament.
However, in light of Dodging Dlamini’s history of chronically bunking accountability whenever she is formally invited to Parliament, merely issuing an invitation will not suffice.
The DA will, therefore, write to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development, Rosemary Capa, to request that she formally summon Minister Dlamini to come and account.
If Dodging Dlamini again fails to show up, she could face serious consequences for ignoring a summons, including possible arrest.
SASSA’s failure to get the ball rolling on finding a new service provider to pay out social grants is a disaster ushering in a crisis.
At yesterday’s shambolic joint meeting SASSA scrambled to answer questions which can only lead us to believe that SASSA is either uncertain or dishonest about finding a credible alternative to CPS.
The meeting also brought into question the South African Post Office’s (SAPO) readiness to take over paying out social grants.
There are too many unanswered questions and nobody is providing clarity and certainty.
The Minister’s failure to show up to a meeting at this critical time is nothing more than a delaying tactic to once again ensure that the contract with CPS continues.
The Panel of Experts appointed by the Constitutional Court to oversee this entire process, has warned that SASSA and the Minister’s lack of cooperation and blatant delaying tactics will see a repeat of the fait accompli we witnessed earlier this year.
Minister Dlamini is playing Russian roulette with the lives of millions of vulnerable South Africans.
She is busy campaigning in KwaZulu-Natal, instead of carrying out her mandate of serving the people and she cannot be allowed to escape accountability again.

SASSA: A countdown to crisis again

The no-show by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) at the meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development today simply beggars belief.
SASSA was meant to give update on the implementation of the Constitutional Court order, which required SASSA to provide regular updates, at least once a month, about its plan to replace the invalid CPS contract to distribute social grants to millions of vulnerable South Africans.
SASSA apparently has nothing to report back, despite the last report to the committee being a full six weeks ago.
The DA, therefore, welcomes that the Chairperson of the Committee, Rose Capa, has agreed to issue a formal summons to ensure that SASSA show-up and fully account for what they have been doing for the last six weeks.
Should the summons be ignored, they will be “liable to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 12 months or to both the fine and the imprisonment” in accordance with the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act
Even if they claim they have nothing to report, they must fully account for why it is they have not made any progress in almost two months.
Millions of poor and vulnerable South Africans look to SASSA to ensure that there is a workable plan for the distribution of social grants come the end of the year. It is a slap in the face to these recipients who depend on social grants to survive month to month that SASSA failed to show up.
SASSA must be summoned to account urgently and should not be allowed to shirk their responsibility.

DA requests Gigaba to begin investigating CPS R1 billion profit

The DA has written to Finance Minister, Malusi Gigaba, requesting that he commences an investigation within the office of the Chief Procurement Officer, into the unconscionable R1.1 billion profit that Cash Paymaster Solutions has made from the invalid social grants contract.
The DA believes that not only is such extraordinary profiteering from public money an insult to poor South Africans, it also may contradict the Constitutional Court order from 2014 which banned CPS from making any further profits from the invalid contract.
On Tuesday CPS filed a statement of profit with the Constitutional Court, wherein it discloses a pre-tax profit of R1.1 billion from the Social Grant Distribution part of its work, but fails to disclose the profit it has made from other incidental services it has provided, including life cover, funeral insurance and pre-paid services.
All in all CPS has been allowed to profit to the most extraordinary levels, directly from the safety net provided to the poorest and most vulnerable South Africans. It is a profit-driven company, but its contract was never valid and its work was only allowed to continue because of the sheer recklessness of Minister Bathabile Dlamini’s department and SASSA.
Whether CPS has violated the Constitutional Court’s 2014 order preventing it from profiting will be up to the Court to decide. But we believe that the Chief Procurement Officer must investigate the terms under which this contract was concluded that allowed for such obscene profits to be made.
Essentially, either CPS misled government at the time of contracting, or SASSA and the Department of Social Development agreed to this unacceptable profit margin.
We expect that the Chief Procurement Officer will unearth the truth. If CPS misled government, every cent it has milked from South Africa must be recovered. Alternatively, if the Social Development Department and SASSA allowed for this daylight-robbery, albeit under an invalid contract, Minister Dlamini will have a R1 billion question to account to Parliament for.

Minister Dlamini cannot be trusted with the money for the poor

Note to Editors: The following speech is under embargo until delivery. The following speech was delivered in Parliament today by DA Shadow Minister of Social Development, Bridget Masango MP, during the Budget Vote on Social Development.
Chairperson,
The budget vote we are debating today is meant to facilitate the Social Development Department’s commitment to social transformation.
The Department continues to state that it “endeavours to create a better life for the poor, vulnerable and excluded people in our society”.
But recent, almost unbelievable, developments in this Department stand in stark contradiction to this noble commitment and endeavour.
And the actions and behaviour of the Minister whose budget we are expected to support today show no commitment to these goals at all.
This is the same Minister – tasked with protecting the poorest of the poor – whose preferred place of residence is the Oyster Box Hotel. Yet, she insists that South Africans can survive on R753 a month.
As South Africans we need to take a closer look at the Minister in charge of this budget and honestly ask ourselves whether we want to entrust her with a budget meant for poor, vulnerable and excluded South Africans?
This is the same Minister who stands at the helm of the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) which has notched up more than R1 billion in irregular expenditure.
We need only to recall the run-up to the 31 March 2017 expiry date of the illegal and irregular contract between Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) and SASSA, to be reminded of Minister Bathabile Dlamini’s rank negligence and her lack of empathy for her task as Minister.
The DA consistently called for action or at least clarity on what plans the Department and SASSA had made to move the distribution of social grants inhouse – but our calls fell on defiant and disdainfully deaf ears.
When civil society voiced its displeasure with the Minister, she singlehandedly defied all logic and rule of law to ensure that the irregular and illegal contract was “extended” – despite earlier, on record assurances that SASSA would be prepared to take over the distribution of social grants on April 1st this year.
Leaders from various sectors – including church groups and NGOs – took turns to decry the Minister’s behaviour and her attitude towards the poor and vulnerable of our country.
While we still demand to know what the Minister’s well-paid work streams and their leaders have been doing all these years to institutionalise the system, we will be scrutinising the Department and SASSA’s progress towards its promise of taking over the payment of social grants on April 1st, 2018.
We are not holding our breath.
This Minister blocked efforts by SASSA officials to adhere to the Constitutional Court order three times, losing a Director General in the process.
Even her own staff can’t work with her, it seems.
Therefore, this Minister simply cannot be trusted with the budget for the Department.
The Minister’s inconsistency and chaotic style of leadership can be demonstrated in the much publicised R316 million that was paid to CPS in 2015 for “enrolling more grant recipients and beneficiaries than it claimed it was contracted to do”.
The Minister presided over the decision to oppose Corruption Watch’s application to review and set aside the decision to pay the money – only to decide recently to withdraw its costly opposition to the legal challenge. All of this at taxpayers’ expense.
This is the same Minister whose budget we are expected to support today.
On the other hand, there has been deafening silence from the Parliamentary leadership towards the DA’s call for an urgent Ad Hoc Committee to conduct a Full Parliamentary Inquiry into the Minister, her officials and CPS.
We have received assurance from the Public Protector’s Office that they will give us feedback as the investigation on allegations of the Minister’s violation of the Executive Member’s Ethics Code, unfolds.
While the SASSA fiasco was unfolding, sending ripples of panic throughout the sector and the country at large, the rest of the Department of Social Development was crumbling – with social services employees going on strike and scores of NGOs closing down due to the non-payment of their subsidies.
This has left many NGOs having to scrape their meagre reserves to provide services to the poor, the vulnerable and the excluded in our society.
How then, can we entrust a budget to a Minister who has virtually put the Department and its entities under administration.
In keeping with our commitment to care for the poor and vulnerable, the DA will not stop to make louder calls for the Minister of Social Development to step down, seeing that she mysteriously survived the midnight Cabinet reshuffle of President Zuma.
Which once again proved that the ANC protects ineffectual leaders and do not care for the interests of our people.
In 2019, the DA-led government will ensure that the Department of Social Development will prioritise the people whose care it was established for – the poor, vulnerable and the excluded of our society.
South Africa’s poor, vulnerable and excluded deserve better and the DA is the only political party that can ensure that all our people receive equal access to opportunities within a fair society.
Thank you.

DA to submit further allegations of improper Dlamini-CPS relationship to the Public Protector

Following reports in the media today on the possible improper relationship between the Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, infamous businessman, Lunga Ncwana, and Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), the DA will submit the allegations to the Public Protector, Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, to form part of her investigation the DA has requested into Dlamini’s relationship with CPS.
The link between Dlamini and Ncwana was reportedly revealed in a text message that Dlamini sent to the former director-general of Social Development, Zane Dangor, which reads; “You and Sipho [Shezi] have been used by [Thokozani] Magwaza who is a friend to my former boyfriend who wanted to extort money from Lunga and could not”.
The Minister’s connection to Ncwana is of grave concern, considering that Ncwana is a close friend of Brian Mosehla, who allegedly pocketed R83 million as CPS’s BEE partner, due to corrupt dealings.
The DA has long held that Dlamini purposefully manufactured the social grants crisis to ensure that the invalid contract with CPS would continue. The recent revelations could possibly reveal that this was done so that Dlamini and those close to her would benefit financially.
Dlamini played political games with the livelihoods of millions of South Africans, yet she somehow survived the president’s midnight cabinet reshuffle, whilst numerous other competent and effective ministers were removed.
Now that it is clear that the President has no remorse for the suffering of our people, it is up to the DA and ordinary South Africans to ensure that Dlamini and Zuma are held accountable for putting their own self-interest above the best interests of the people.

Zuma should recuse himself and let Parliament do its Job

Following the Constitutional Court ruling to extend the contract between the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) and Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), the DA calls on President Jacob Zuma and Minister Bathabile Dlamini to recuse themselves from the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on social security and let Parliament do its job and oversee the implementation of the new contract.
The Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng in the court proceedings suggested that Dlamini is inept to do her job, stating that her handling of the social grants debacle “can only be characterised as an absolute incompetence”.
Dlamini’s “incompetence” is a reflection of the state of our current government, and neither Dlamini nor the President can, therefore, be trusted with overseeing this new contract. In fact, Dlamini can no longer be trusted with running an entire governmental department and must be fired immediately.
President Zuma’s decision to establish and chair an ICM, which includes the “inept” Minister of Social Development, to oversee the implementation of this contract, is a clear conflict of interest.
This is in light of reports last week that Zuma’s special adviser, Michael Hulley, met with Minister Bathabile Dlamini and high-ranking CPS officials to discuss the extension of the CPS contract.
Bathabile Dlamini has clearly bungled the entire process of institutionalising the payment of social grants. So desperate was Dlamini to ensure the extension of the invalid contract.
The ICM should take a step back and allow Parliament to perform its job, in line with Constitutional Court ruling.
This is why the DA has already requested Parliament to act and called for an ad hoc committee to be established to investigate the role of the Minister in the creation of this crisis, the continuation of grant payments and the way forward in order to avoid any further crises to this vital lifeline.
The DA also believes that the Public Protector, Adv Busisiwe Mkhwebane, confirming the DA’s request to probe Dlamini, will shed light on the Minister’s involvement in this debacle.
The DA will continue the fight to ensure that those who were responsible for putting the livelihoods of 17 million vulnerable South Africans at risk are held to account.

Who is Dlamini fighting for?

Note to editors: The following speech was delivered in Parliament today by the DA Member of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development, Karen Jooste MP, during the debate on the SASSA crisis.
Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Members, Fellow South Africans
Die hele SASSA debakel wys duidelik dat die behoeftes van mense wat sosiale toelaes ontvang, die Opper Gesag van die Reg en verantwoordbaarheid geensins vir hierdie Minister belangrik is nie.
She avoids answering questions, she interferes in the administration of her department and has gone out of her way to make sure that grants will again be distributed by CPS.
We know that the Minister ignored all three legal options on the impending crisis which begs the question: who is the Minister fighting for?
Certainly not the 17 million South Africans who rely on social grants just to get by each day.
Verlede jaar op die 7de Junie het ek die Minister gevra of die finansiële waarde van sosiale toelaes genoeg is om die mans, vrouens en kinders wat daarvan afhanlik is te onderhou.
Sy het toe die vermetelheid gehad om te antwoord dat “R753 genoeg is om kos en ander noodsaaklikhede te koop”.
Hierdie antwoord was n klap in die gesig van mense wat sosiale toelaes ontvang. Dit wys duidelik hoe uit voeling die minister is met die harde werklikhede wat baie Suid-Afrikaners daagliks ervaar.
Op grond van hierdie antwoord alleen moes sy afgedank gewees het. In plaas daarvan is sy gelos om net nog skade aan terig.
Honourable Speaker, the crisis is not only about whether these grants will be paid, it is about the quality of these grants.
It costs approximately R640 to feed a small child a basic nutritious meal and R680 to feed a teenager… yet the child grant is only R380!
When unemployment is as high as it is now, these child grants are the only income. It is shared across a household and are used for buying basic foodstuffs.
Our country’s future needs an educated population and a skilled workforce. For the sake of these children, and our country’s economic future, the grants must not only be paid on the first of April but their value has to be increased so mothers can at least feed their children properly.
Die DA is die enigste party wat werklik die behoeftes van mense wat sosiale toelaes ontvang verstaan, wat aandring op verantwoordbaarheid en wat baklei vir beter toelaes.
As die President nie die Minister wil afdank nie, behoort sy die eerbare ding te doen en self te bedank.

Social Grants Crisis: 28 days and counting since DA called for dodging Dlamini to be fired

It has been 28 days since the DA called on President Zuma to fire the Social Development Minister over her inexcusable mismanagement of the social grants crisis and still no action has been taken to hold her accountable for putting the livelihoods of 17 million South Africans at risk.
Since then it has emerged that:
• SASSA has failed to answer questions put to them by the Constitutional Court regarding social grants and the CPS contract;
• SASSA knew they would not be ready to take over the distribution of social grants as far back as April 2016, a full year ago;
• Dlamini has taken every opportunity to block any alternative options that do not involve CPS;
• Three different legal opinions, which stated that SASSA should approach the Constitutional court, were ignored by Dlamini;
• The President’s special advisor, Michael Hulley, has been involved in ensuring CPS would continue to distribute social grants; and
• Dlamini has failed to answer 93% of parliamentary questions regarding the social grants crisis.
The DA have already written to the Public Protector, Adv Busisiwe Mkhwebane, to request two investigations, one into the relationship between the Minister and CPS as there seems to be a possibility that Dlamini will, in some way, benefit from the CPS contract, and the second to investigate whether Dlamini wilfully mislead Parliament.
It is blatantly obvious that Dlamini is not fit for office and her contempt for the highest court in our country is matched only by her contempt for the most vulnerable people in our country.
The laundry list of failures by Dlamini is vast and it is high time the President puts the interests of the people and their wellbeing first.

DA requests Public Protector investigation into relationship between Dlamini and CPS

The DA has written to the Public Protector, Adv Busisiwe Mkhwebane, to request that she launches an urgent investigation into the relationship between the Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, and Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), as well as her role in manufacturing this crisis, in conflict with a Court order.
Given that Dlamini has continuously blocked any recommendations for alternative contractors or payment methods that do not involve CPS as well as the media reports this weekend that Zuma’s adviser, Michael Hulley, held special meetings with Dlamini and top officials at SASSA to ensure that the contract with CPS is renewed, the vital question as to why Dlamini is so hell bent on ensuring that CPS continue distributing social grants must be investigated fully by the Public Protector.
This investigation will help shed light on whether Dlamini will either directly or indirectly benefit from this contract with CPS.
The DA has long held that Dlamini manufactured the grants payment crisis in order to force the South African Social Security Agency (SASA) to renew its invalid contract with CPS. SASSA’s CEO, Thokozani Magwaza, claimed that Dlamini blocked him from reporting to the Constitutional Court about the distribution of social grants, and subsequently ensuring that CPS gets the contract.
‘Dodging’ Dlamini has become the personification of the ANC government’s arrogance and utter disdain for the 17 million poor and vulnerable South Africans who depend on social grants each month to put food on the table.
She is no longer fit to hold office, yet the ANC continues to protect her. It is clear that the ANC cares more for ineffective Ministers than for poor South Africans.
The DA will not stand for this and will continue to fight for our people’s right to hold publically elected officials accountable when they fail.

Social Grants Crisis: DA will demand the release of the new CPS contract

The DA will write to the Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, to demand that the new contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) be made public.
If she will not do so voluntarily, the DA will submit an application, in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA), to force her to.
Reports indicate that the new contract with CPS has already been signed, yet ‘dodging Dlamini’ has taken every opportunity to avoid answering vital questions of clarity on the terms of the new contract.
The ANC and Dlamini have shown time and time again that there will be no accountability for this crisis and that is why the DA is left with no choice but to submit an application in terms of PAIA for the contract, in the interest of openness and transparency.
The current invalid contract between SASSA and CPS will come to an end in just over 3 weeks, on 31 March 2017.
The 17 million South Africans who rely on social grants just to put the bare essentials on the table from day to day, deserve to know if and how their grants will be paid.
Despite the Department of Social Development and SASSA knowing that the current contract was invalid since 2012, they ignored the Constitutional Court, and the DA believes this crisis was manufactured to force a new contract with CPS.
The DA has reason to believe that SASSA’s new contract with CPS will be at an inflated cost that may cost taxpayers billions of rands.
Tomorrow, 10 March 2017, the DA will march, en masse, to the Department of Social Development to show Minister Dlamini, that even if the ANC-government rewards bad behaviour, the DA and South Africans will not.