Claims by Dlamini's underlings raise heat on minister

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini may have thought she was home free when the Constitutional Court agreed to extend the grants payment contract to Cash Paymaster Services last month, but the court's determination to get to the bottom of who should carry the can continues to haunt her.

She may have hoped her affidavit to the court two weeks ago, in which she laid the blame for the affair in the laps of her officials, would be the end of things and that she would also escape potentially having to personally foot the legal bill for the debacle.

How wrong she was. Last Friday, South African Social Security Agency CEO Thokozani Magwaza made his own statement to the court which effectively called the minister a liar. Far from being blameless, Magwaza said, Dlamini had introduced "work streams" to deal with the grants contract and had them report directly to her.

On Monday, the former director-general of Social Development, Zane Dangor, followed suit with an affidavit that supports Magwaza's claims.

The significance of these statements cannot be underestimated. Not only do they put the minister in a tight spot but they signify a refreshing assertion of independence by public servants. In a country where senior bureaucratic appointments are routinely political "deployees", refusing to take one for the minister can be long-term career suicide.

Either these two officials are so personally affronted that they cannot stomach the aspersions the minister has cast on them, or they have an eye to the future with a sense that the current tide of politics may soon wash away the influence of Dlamini and her fellow travellers.

Either way, South Africa should be grateful that they have had the courage to throw more light on Dlamini's alleged role. As one of the ministers who dodged the president's night of the long knives two weeks ago, the court's findings on the question of Dlamini's personal liability may soon add to the political storm.