Note to editors: The following speech was delivered in Parliament today by the DA’s Shadow Deputy Minister of Social Development, Lindy Wilson MP, during the debate on the SASSA crisis.
From very large nyana skeletons to the artful dodger. Social Development Minister, Bathabile Dlamini, has become a master of dodging accountability.
Her absolute disdain and disregard for 17 million poor and vulnerable South Africans, the Constitutional Court, Parliamentary procedures and regulations, and the PFMA, beggar belief. The lengths she has gone to, to ensure that CPS gets a new contract to issue grants again, cannot be made up.
In July 2016, when it was fast becoming apparent that SASSA were facing challenges with regards to the take-over of grants in April 2017, the DA began submitting written questions to the Minister. 15 in total. The Minister responded to two. This year we submitted 13 questions and not one of them has been answered.
- The DA asked the Minister whether she submitted the proposed payment model for the takeover of the payments of grants by SASSA to the National Treasury for analysis and evaluation – NO REPLY.
- In July 2016 and again in January 2017 the DA asked the Minister whether SASSA intends to extend its contract for the distribution of grants with Net1/CPS before the specified contract concludes on 31 March 2017 – NO REPLY.
- The DA asked the Minister for the details of the various work stream categories set up by her department to action the transition of the distribution of social grants from Net1/CPS to SASSA – NO REPLY.
- The DA questioned the tender processes used for the contracts for the leaders and work streams – NO REPLY.
This a clear indication of the Minister’s reign of impunity and her continual dodging of any opportunity to account for her department’s failure to ensure that 17 million South Africans receive their grants when the current invalid CPS contract ends on 31 March 2017.
Parliamentary questions are a vital component of accountability in Parliament and provide an opportunity to ensure that the Executive conduct themselves in a transparent manner.
When the DA requested the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee to please summons the Minister to give account to the Portfolio, we were advised that the Chair may not summons the Minister, she gets invited. If she decides to come, it is up to her.
When the Minister did grace the Portfolio with her presence, it was to continue her lack of transparency. She was deliberately vague in her responses, and, when the DA pushed for concrete answers, they were shut down by the Chair of the Committee.
So the DA requested SCOPA to ask the Minister to appear. Only then did her skeletons start to fall out of the closet… and it became apparent that her manipulation of this emergency situation in favour of CPS and the lack of any contracts with them had put the lives of 17 million South Africans at risk.
The DA is of the belief that Ms Dlamini is no longer fit to hold office and have called for President Zuma to fire her. His silence on this matter is deafening and serves to confirm that the ANC rewards failure.
We will continue to pursue all avenues to make sure the Minister will not be allowed to dodge accountability any longer.