Cash Paymaster Services may have to return R1 billion profit

Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) may have to hand back R1bn in profit it is estimated to have made from the social grants contract over the past five years once the Constitutional Court receives and scrutinises CPS’s audited statements for the period at the end of April.

When the court extended the invalidity of the CPS contract in 2013‚ it also ruled that the company was not allowed to profit from the contract.

• Zuma says grants will be paid on timePresident 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.

The firm was ordered to file within 30 days of the contract ending an audited statement of the expenses incurred‚ the income received as well as the net profit earned.

• South Africa’s grants debacle: about political trickery, not separation of powersThe social grants debacle in South Africa throws up a number of questions about the country’s state of politics, governance, leadership and democracy.

Analysts estimate that CPS made about R1bn profit over the five-year period of the contract.

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