'Blame Sassa,' Bathabile Dlamini tells highest court

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini claims the only thing she did wrong in the social grants contract debacle was not to demand accountability from South African Social Security Agency officials.

Dlamini has made the claim in a 140-page affidavit submitted to the Constitutional Court on Friday, in which she fails to address key questions about what action she took to ensure grants would be paid after the Cash Paymaster Services contract ended - which would have been yesterday.

The court had given Dlamini until Friday to show cause why she should not be joined in her personal capacity to an urgent application brought by the Black Sash Trust.

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The trust asked the court last month to intervene after Sassa conceded it would not be able to pay millions of grants, despite having promised the court in November 2015 it would do so.

The court also asked Dlamini to explain why she should not pay the costs of the application from her own pocket.

"With hindsight I ought to have demanded greater accountability from Sassa officials and more frequent communication and updates from them as to the progress of the implementation of the plan.

"I did not do so because I assumed that the existing reporting chain and communication channels were working and that I would be informed if anything of consequence arose," Dlamini argues in her papers.

Although she accepts that, as minister, she is responsible for what the department and Sassa do, she has observed that accountability does not include personal liability for conduct which "courts may find to be an error of law".

Instead, she outlines what everyone else in her department and Sassa was doing and how they failed to inform her that the situation was dire.

She explains how Sassa CEO Thokozani Magwaza begged her work streams, tasked to find a way for the agency to take over payment of social grants, to start speaking to the executive committee too and not only report to her.

This confirms previous claims by sources at Sassa and the department that the work streams told numerous CEOs they were hired by the minister and would only report to her.

The work streams and an advisory panel were hired by Dlamini, but she claims in her court papers they withheld crucial information from her.

This paints a picture of a breakdown in communication and the usurping of power from the agency's executive officers.

"By April 2016, it was clear to Sassa officials that, based on their progress ... it would not be ready to meet the objectives of taking over fully from CPS by March 31 2017.

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"They thereafter sought legal advice from Adv Nazeer Cassim SC and Adv [Mias] Mostert in relation to what the legal implications of not meeting the court order were. That opinion was received by the project manager of work streams."

The minister denies having received any of the opinions warning that Sassa was in danger of not being able to ensure grants would be paid after CPS's contract came to an end. "I pause to stress that although Sassa sought advice I was not notified of this nor was I given sight of Adv Cassim's opinion, until after October 2016."

In the bulk of her affidavit she details meetings she never attended, saying her first meeting was in the middle of last year for a presentation.

"I met with Sassa officials - (including T Magwaza, Ms Dumisile Ndlovu and Ms Zodwa Mvulane) - and Government Printing Works regarding the printing of beneficiary cards."

But she does not say if she asked questions during that presentation or tried to find out if there were any problems about meeting deadlines to ensure grants would be paid.

Instead, she says, after that meeting Sassa sought legal advice which it hid from her until October.

Grant payments got under way without any major hiccups reported yesterday, with the department saying that 2.6million beneficiaries had received their money by 10am.

Pay points are scheduled to distribute grants tomorrow .

sabaa@sundaytimes.co.za