Sassa tells ConCourt it knew in October it couldn't take over payments

The country’s social grants agency says it discovered in October last year that it would be unable to take over the grants programme.

The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) made the revelations in papers filed to the Constitutional Court late on Monday‚ eNCA reported.

• CPS says social grants debacle has battered its reputationCash Paymaster Services (CPS) does not want to distribute social grants in the long term‚ saying the debacle over who will pay them has harmed its reputation. 

Sassa was ordered by the court last week to answer questions around how the current grants crisis unfolded.

• Poor left in dark over grants paymentsThe SA Social Security Agency appears not to have answered the Constitutional Court's questions about why it will not be able to keep its promise to the court that it would take over the payment of social grants from contractor Cash Paymaster Services at the beginning of next month. 

Sassa was meant to respond by 4pm on Monday‚ but only did so electronically at 10.36pm‚ eNCA reported.

The previous grants contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) was ruled invalid in 2014‚ but CPS was allowed to see out the contract‚ which ends on March 31.

Sassa was meant to continually update the Constitutional Court on how it planned to deal with the grants programme from April 1.

But in recent weeks it has emerged that Sassa intends to renew the CPS contract‚ after saying that it has failed to find a suitable replacement.

The saga has sparked calls for social development minister Bathabile Dlamini to resign.

• Cosatu, EFF tell Dlamini to quitThe EFF and union federation Cosatu want Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini to resign over the social grants payment saga. 

Dlamini has said that part of the reason for the delay in finding a new contractor was that the National Treasury had resisted appeals for assistance in sealing a new deal.

Finance minister Pravin Gordhan is due to give his department’s side of the story on Tuesday before parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa).