Zuma says grants will be paid on time

President Jacob Zuma made use of his Human Rights Day speech in King William's Town, Eastern Cape, yesterday to reassure social grants recipients that they would get their money at the end of the month.

He said the government was proud of the progress it had made in extending social security assistance to needy people in line with the constitution."The government pays social grants to almost 17million [people], which is a huge achievement in fighting poverty.

• Sassa and Ntlemeza court rulings highlight ‘incompetence‚ malfeasance’ in government: Corruption WatchThe judiciary’s decisions on Friday underline the incompetence and malfeasance of key sections of South Africa’s executive branch‚ and of the legislative branch for failing to hold the executive to account.

"The child support grant and older-persons grant are the two largest social grants programmes, with 12million children and 3.2million older persons benefiting," the president told the gathering.

He said the government wanted to amend the Social Assistance Act to enable it to provide funeral benefits to the elderly and savings plans for caregivers of children.

• Expiring social grant contract 'will take its toll on CPS finances'NET1's Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) will come under financial strain in 12 months when its contract with the South African Social Security Agency finally comes to an end, after years of controversy around the contract and after months of speculation about whether grants would be paid from April.

The invalid contract between the SA Social Security Agency a nd Cash Paymaster Services for the disbursement of the grants was extended by the Constitutional Court on Friday for 12 months under stringent conditions.