Dlamini told me to find dirt on banks‚ ex-Sassa CEO tells inquiry

The former SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) chief executive on Friday accused Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini of telling him to find dirt on banks so they would not get contracts to pay social grants.

"The minister said I must find something on the banks that will make the banks look like they will not be able to get into the fray of paying the contracts‚" Thokozani Magwaza told the inquiry into Dlamini's role and liability in the social grants debacle.

Magwaza said he refused to follow Dlamini's instructions. "I disputed ... I said I cannot be able to do that. I cannot be able to find anything on the banks."

Magwaza has told the inquiry that Dlamini ran Sassa as if it was her own shop. He also Dlamini had disturbed the smooth running of the agency.

In contrast‚ Dlamini has argued before the same inquiry that the problems at Sassa started when Magwaza was appointed as its chief executive.

She said Magwaza had threatened to terminate the workstreams contracts. The court heard earlier that Dlamini had established the workstreams and they reported directly to her. She has denied Magwaza and former social development director-general Zane Dangor’s assertion the workstreams were a parallel process Sassa’s work.