Sassa reports CPS to Concourt and cops for ‘interfering’ with grant system migration

The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has reported controversial grants distributor Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) to the police and the Constitutional Court for allegedly interfering in their migration to a new grants payment system.

This was revealed by social development minister Susan Shabangu‚ at a press briefing on Thursday.

The briefing had been convened to provide an update on the migration from the old payment system administered by CPS to the new one‚ to be operated by the South African Post Office (SOPA).

The migration is part of a Constitutional Court judgement issued last year. The highest court in the land found that the contract between Sassa and CPS was unlawful and invalid‚ and ordered that grants be distributed by the state owned post office.

The court also ordered that it be provided with regular updates on the progress made by an inter-ministerial committee set up to oversee the migration process.

Shabangu’s announcement comes after there was chaos earlier in July when some grant beneficiaries struggled to receive their payments while the post office and Sassa grappled with the migration process.

Shabangu claimed that there have been a number of instances when CPS employees allegedly went to payment points to coerce beneficiaries into signing forms to commit them to remaining on their system.

"Some of the interference is to make sure that when our beneficiaries go to pay points‚ they are being lured to not continue getting their grants or assistance through the post office. We've seen CPS employing or having people who stand at different pay points. They recruit beneficiaries to continue receiving payment through CPS‚” she said.

"One of the things they've done is to make sure there's a particular form that needs to be filled for you to give consent to continue receiving payment from CPS.”

The social development minister said these possible breaches of the court order had been reported to the Constitutional Court and to the police.

"At some pay points‚ cases have been opened with the police. We have also filed some of these matters with the Constitutional Court‚ in making sure that we inform the court that CPS continues to try and lure back our beneficiaries‚" said Shabangu.

The inter-ministerial committee‚ which is led my Minister in the Presidency Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma‚ reported that since it started the migration process in April this year‚ just over 1.8-million beneficiaries have been issued with new gold Sassa cards. The old white card is due to be phased out at the end of September this year.

The committee said during this month's payment cycle‚ the post office paid grants to 800‚000 beneficiaries on the new gold Sassa card‚ while another 300‚000 were paid via Postbank Mzansi accounts.

According to a statement from the IMC‚ "The gold card is safer and does not allow for illegal deductions and fraudulent transactions to take place. It is designed to protect social grant beneficiaries from illegal deductions for things such as electricity‚ airtime and loans.

"The only deduction that is permitted on the new gold Sassa card will be for funeral policies on non-child grants‚ which should not be more than 10% of the total grant."

The South African Post Office CEO Mark Barnes reassured that the ongoing strike would only have an impact on actual postal services and not on the distribution of social grants.