Sassa in ConCourt bid to extend CPS contract

The SA Social Security Agency has asked the Constitutional Court to extend its contract with Cash Paymaster Services to distribute social grants until September.

The contract Sassa currently has with CPS was declared invalid by the Constitutional Court‚ but it extended it to the end of March after the agency failed to find a new contractor.

The application by Sassa comes after Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini appeared before an inquiry into her role in the social grants saga.

Dlamini has told the inquiry that she is not to blame for the crisis at the agency.

She instead put the blame on former Sassa chief executive Thokozani Magwaza.

In papers filed to the Constitutional Court on Tuesday‚ Sassa acting chief executive Pearl Bhengu says the agency has managed to make arrangements for the payment of social grants to beneficiaries who are not serviced by CPS.

"In respect of the fourth category dealing with cash payments made to some 25-million beneficiaries‚ Sassa has been unable to procure an alternative methodology to secure timeous payments to such beneficiaries at this stage‚ Bhengu's affidavit reads.

According to Bhengu‚ the beneficiaries that fall under that category are illiterate‚ the elderly and the disabled‚ who do not use banks and receive their grants physically.

"It is in respect of these beneficiaries that Sassa requires an order of this court to enable CPS to continue this service for the period commencing 1 April 2018 to the end of September 2018."

Dlamini filed an affidavit supporting Bhengu's.