D-Day for Bathabile Dlamini in perjury case

The Johannesburg magistrate’s court is on Wednesday expected to hand down judgment in the perjury case against former social development minister Bathabile Dlamini.   

Magistrate Betty Khumalo previously dismissed Dlamini’s application to have the case scrapped.  

She arrived in court dressed in a red coat with a handful of supporters, including ANC NEC member Tony Yengeni and suspended ANC member Carl Niehaus. 

Dlamini, who is president of the ANC Women’s League, allegedly gave false evidence under oath at an inquiry instituted by the Constitutional Court in 2018 into the payments fiasco at the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa).  

The court was forced to extend a contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) even though it was found to be illegal.

The inquiry — headed by retired Gauteng judge president Bernard Ngoepe — investigated  whether Dlamini had appointed work streams to ensure Sassa could take over the payment of social grants from CPS.

The inquiry found Dlamini appointed individuals to lead parallel work streams and they reported to her. The work streams were supposed to report to the Sassa executive committee, not to her.  

Dlamini denied under oath during the inquiry that she appointed the work streams and that they reported to her.

This led to the Constitutional Court directing its registrar to forward its judgment and a copy of the Ngoepe report to the national director of public prosecutions to determine whether to prosecute Dlamini for perjury.

Dlamini pleaded not guilty to the charge on November 24. She said if she gave false evidence under oath she did so unknowingly.

TimesLIVE