The Constitutional Court has extended the contract that the SA Social Security Agency with Cash Paymaster Services to pay social grants for a period of 12 months.
Justice Johan Froneman read out the hard-hitting unanimous judgment Friday morning in the application by the Black Sash for the grant payment process to go ahead under strict supervision.
In its 14-point ruling, the Constitutional Court said the contract would be extended under the same terms and conditions of the current contract, adding that Sassa and CPS have a constitutional obligation to ensure payment of social grants to grant beneficiaries from the First of April this year, until an entity other than CPS is able to do so.
The court also ruled that a failure to do so would infringe on the rights of beneficiaries.
"The declaration of invalidity of the contract is further extended for the 12-month period from 1 April, 2017," Froneman said.
The court also ordered CPS not to share the information of beneficiaries with other parties while precluding beneficiaries to "opt in" to the sharing of confidential information "for the marketing of goods and services."
But, the court kept the best for last, finally ordering Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini to "show cause on affidavit, on or before Friday, 31 March, 2017, why (1) she should not be joined in her personal capacity and (2) she should not pay costs of the application from her own pocket."
Froneman also had some harsh words for the Minister and Sassa in the lead-up to the final order after reflecting on their failures to fulfil earlier assurances given to the court which in 2013 declared the contract with CPS invalid.
"On 3 Feb 2012 Sassa concluded contract with CPS to provide services for the payment of social grants for a period of five years. On 29 September 2013 this court found that the award of the tender was constitutionally invalid in the case of Allpay1. It subsequently made a remedial order where it suspended the declaration of invalidity and this was based on the premise that either a new five-year-tender will be awarded after a proper procurement process or that Sassa would itself take over the payment of social grants when the suspended contract came to an end on the 31st of March this year."
Justice Froneman said that Sassa had known since April 2016 that it would not be able to comply with the undertaking to the court that it would be able to pay social grants from 1 April this year.
"The Minister says she was only informed of this in October, 2016. There is no indication on the papers before us that she showed any interest in Sassa's progress before that. Despite repeated warnings from advising counsel and CPS, neither Sassa nor the Minister took any steps to inform the court of the problems they were experiencing. Nor did they see fit to approach the court for authorisation to regularise the situation," he said.
"The Minister and Sassa tells us that CPS is the only entity capable of paying grants for the foreseeable future after the 31st of March. This court and the whole country are now confronted with a situation where the Executive arm of government admits that it is not able to fulfil its constitutional and statutory obligations to provide for the social assistance of its people. And, in the deepest and most shaming of ironies it now seeks to rely on a private corporate entity with no discernible commitment to transformative empowerment to get it out of this predicament," Froneman said.
In sketching the history and importance of the country's social grant system, Justice Froneman said "it has had a material impact in reducing poverty and inequality and in mitigating the consequences of high levels of unemployment." But, he said "this judgment is not an occasion to celebrate the achievement of the country's social grant system."
