ConCourt wants answers from minister and Sassa

The Constitutional Court has called on the minister of social development and the SA Social Security Agency to indicate whether or not a payment plan which could cover 80% of grant recipients was feasible.

The court issued directions to Minister Bathabile Dlamini and Sassa to say whether the alternative payment plan proposed by a panel of experts could be workable.

The panel was appointed by the court in March to evaluate the steps taken by Sassa to ensure it was able to administer and pay social grants from April 1 next year.

The Constitutional Court also instructed the panel to give recommendations on the necessity of an investigation by the national Treasury into the conduct of Sassa and Department of Social Development employees.

This is in relation to all actions undertaken since June last year to issue contracts to service providers, and whether any person should be prosecuted.

In its report to the court, the panel said 80% of grant recipients who lived within 5km of an ATM or point-of-sale facility could be paid directly from Sassa's corporate account into their existing bank accounts.

The panel recommended that the other 20% could receive payments at paypoints.

The court said if the panel's plan was not feasible, Sassa and the minister should indicate this in their quarterly report due on December 18.

The court said if the alternative plan was feasible, Sassa and Dlamini had to indicate by January 29 how they intended to set up a system of direct payments into beneficiary bank accounts.

The court also ordered Dlamini and Sassa to indicate how they intended to implement methods to pay the 20% of grant recipients who did not live within 5km of an ATM.

The court also directed the panel to arrange meetings with all stakeholders to consider the reports that would be prepared by the minister and Sassa to be presented to the court.