South Africa's Social Development Minister, Bathabile Dlamini, on Wednesday, shot down former SA Social Security Services (SASSA) chief executive officer (CEO) Thokozani Magwaza’ evidence, denying allegations that he sidelined him as the grants debacle raged on.
Richard Solomon, for Magwaza, asked her to comment on Magwaza’s statement that she told him in a meeting to focus on daily operations at SASSA and to not concern himself with the work of the contentious workstreams.
“How can I say that to a CEO?” asked a visibly irritated Dlamini.
There was documented evidence containing Magwaza’s signatures and hers showing meetings between all executives, including Magwaza, and the workstreams appointment to help SASSA take over social grants payments.
“There are signatures all over documents signed by Magwaza and me... I don’t understand why all the blame is shifted towards me,” she said.
She repeated to the inquiry that problems started immediately after Magwaza’s appointment as CEO. She said Magwaza failed to liaise with her and even filed an affidavit in the Constitutional Court without her knowledge.
Dlamini further denied that she had known since 2015 that SASSA would not meet the 2017 deadline to take over grants payments from Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), whose contract was ruled invalid by the Constitutional Court.
She said she became aware that the April 1, 2017, deadline would not be met after reading an article in 2016 reporting on the issue, and also heard from the workstreams at a meeting in October 2016 that the deadline was out of reach.
Dlamini said she called the October meeting with the workstreams when she realised that there was no progress done.
Dlamini and Magwaza had been at loggerheads over the work done by the workstreams as social grants crisis became imminent. Magwaza then filed an affidavit in the Constitutional Court disputing Dlamini’s claims in court that sought to lay blame on the SASSA executives.
The former CEO said the affidavit was his personal account to “set the record straight” that Dlamini knew as far back as July 2015 that SASSA would not able to take over the grant payments. He accused Dlamini of interfering in SASSA plans to take over from CPS.
The contentious workstreams, appointed in 2015, cost the taxpayer more than R40 million. The advisory groups reported to Dlamini directly and were seen as an unnecessary expensive parallel structure at SASSA.
The Constitutional Court-mandated inquiry into Dlamini’s role in the social grants debacle and whether she should be held liable for legal costs incurred continue in Johannesburg.
The grants crisis saw rights group Black Sash taking the department to the Constitutional Court to ensure that over 17 million beneficiaries continued to receive grants after the court ruled in 2014 that the CPS contract to dispense grants was invalid.
In March 2017, the Constitutional Court ordered that CPS continue to pay grants for a further twelve months after it was found that Sassa was unable to meet the deadline and take over grant payments.
-African News Agency (ANA)
