WATCH: If President Zuma says I must go‚ I must go – Dlamini

17 March 2017 - 18:21 By Kyle Cowan
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'VICTIM OF HIDDEN AGENDAS': Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has failed to explain how Sassa will be able to pay social grants to the country's 17million poorest people on April 1 - and even if it does, how did we get into this mess?
'VICTIM OF HIDDEN AGENDAS': Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has failed to explain how Sassa will be able to pay social grants to the country's 17million poorest people on April 1 - and even if it does, how did we get into this mess?
Image: DANIEL BORN

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has said that if President Jacob Zuma decides to remove her‚ she will not fight his decision.

She said she saw the Constitutional Court ruling as her “second chance in life” to show she is capable of doing her job.

She was speaking at a social grants roadshow meeting in Kempton Park on Friday‚ hours after the Constitutional Court ruled that Cash Paymaster Services would continue to pay social grants for the next 12 months.

Most of her speech dealt with explaining how the grants crisis had unfolded‚ a speech very similar to the one she delivered last week to the standing committee on public accounts.

“I think this should be in the minds of all of us. Before we started here I said to all the Sassa officials‚ let’s calm down and whatever decision [by the court] must be in favour of the people‚” Dlamini said.

  • ANC calls for ‘harsh consequences’ for those to blame for social grants bungleGovernment must investigate those responsible for the “embarrassing” social grants saga and act decisively against them‚ the African National Congress said on Friday. 

“If it means that the president takes a decision that I must go‚ I can’t stand in the way of corrective measures by the president‚” she continued‚ to a chorus of “No!” from several people in the room.

She went on to say: “I think there must be an understanding that there are people who get very sick in their lifetime and when they get better they say that God has given them a second life. And I think that all of us as Social Development‚ Sassa‚ including the CEO‚ we all understand we've been given a second chance in life."

Dlamini described the Constitutional Court ruling as “a victory for the people of South Africa”‚ while responding to questions from journalists after the meeting.

  • Social grants: Read the full ConCourt judgmentRead the full judgment on the social grants case brought by NGO Black Sash at the Constitutional Court on Friday.  

“We have always said Constitutional Court is important in this matter. Therefore we are all going to act according to the prescripts of the court‚” said Dlamini.

“One other thing that we want to do is to continuously apologise to South Africans‚ more particularly the beneficiaries for all the trouble they have taken and we want to say we are going to strive and ensure that this does not happen again.

“We also want to congratulate all our beneficiaries for this victory. Because this victory is not for individual people‚ it is directly the victory of grant beneficiaries‚” Dlamini said.

  • WATCH: Hold Dlamini to account for social grants chaos‚ says DASocial Development Department Minister Bathabile Dlamini should be held to account for her failure to prevent the social grants crisis‚ the Democratic Alliance said on Friday. 

In response to other questions‚ it appeared that Dlamini would not shy away if she was ordered to pay the costs of the court battle.

“People think differently‚ this is the work of a collective‚ but if the courts said at the end of the day take responsibility‚ we are going to ask how we should take that responsibility‚” she said.

People who attended the meeting were given a chance to ask the minister questions. Many praised her for her hard work‚ saying they were proud of her.

 

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