MPs wary of plan to rescue social grant payments in SA

MPs remain doubtful about government's commitment to resolve the social grants crisis‚ despite assurances by a high-powered delegation that the Post Office would take over grant payments from Cash Paymaster Services (CPS).

This comes after minister in the presidency Jeff Radebe told MPs that the deadlock between the Post Office and the SA Social Security Agency has been resolved and that the Post Office would pay grants from April 2018 together with the agency through a "hybrid model".

Radebe was briefing a joint meeting of the public accounts watchdog body Scopa and the portfolio committee on social development in his capacity as chairman of the inter-ministerial committee.

He was joined by other members of the committee such as telecommunications minister Siyabonga Cwele‚ Bongani Bongo of state security and social development minister Bathabile Dlamini.

The inter-ministerial committee appeared at the insistence of MPs after Dlamini‚ Sassa and the Post Office clashed before lawmakers over who should take over from CPS following a Constitution Court ruling that nullified their contract.

Dlamini claimed last week the Post Office did not have the capacity to distribute social grants worth more than R172-billion to more than 17-million beneficiaries‚ while its CEO Mark Barnes insisted on the opposite.

Following an intervention by the inter-ministerial committee‚ which included a meeting that ended at midnight on Tuesday‚ Radebe said the three bodies had agreed to work together to pay social grants through a "hybrid model". He said details of this model would be fleshed out next Friday once the project plan was finalised.

Dlamini did not utter a word during the meeting as Radebe dealt with questions from MPs‚ which was contrary to her behaviour last week as she constantly shook her head and vociferously disputed Barnes's input.

Radebe said the project plan included roping in other state organs where necessary. But this was not good enough for opposition MPs‚ who said law enforcement agencies should probe why there were delays in deciding on the role of the Post Office as the new distributor of social grants.

EFF MP Ntombovuyo Mente suspected foul play on the part of officials who wanted to line their pockets.

"Who is engineering the delay? We are not going to run away from that. We are not going to do oversight which is suppressed. In Sassa whoever was dealing with specifications deliberately delayed the process and the Hawks must investigate. [We] need to get to the bottom of who is the problem in the department and that person must account to law enforcers. This is crime‚" said Mente.

The IFP's Mkhuleko Hlengwa was also sceptical about the plan. "Me‚ I'm a doubting Thomas. We've been down this road before. Timelines have been presented to us and commitments have been made and it has not happened. We've been fed commitment after commitment and all those things have come to nought‚" he said.

The DA's Timothy Brauteseth said the latest developments were a "victory for oversight" although he still slammed Sassa.

He raised concerns on why Sassa took more than 60 days to adjudicate one proposal. "Sassa have created this crisis that we sit with now‚ that we are now vexed with‚" said Brauteseth.

Themba Godi‚ the chairman of Scopa‚ said he welcomed Radebe's intervention. “All necessary resources and capacities will be in place and there will now be weekly reporting‚” said Godi.