The Department of Social Development says it can pay social grants using “cash trucks” if negotiations with the service provider do not pan out.
Appearing before parliament’s social development committee to give a weekly update on the progress in securing the payment of grants on April 1, the director-general of the department, Zane Dangor, said while he did not believe that negotiations for a new contract with CPS would be “scuppered”, there were other ways to pay grants.
Dangor’s reportback was brief as he had been urgently summoned back to Pretoria by President Jacob Zuma.
Negotiations to secure the new contract got under way yesterday and are expected to run until tomorrow.
Dangor said 99% of beneficiaries had bank accounts with Grindrod, CPS’s banking partner, which would allow them to deposit social grants.
About 40% of these preferred to get their grants in cash but said they could use the Post Bank and merchants, if necessary.
In remote areas, he said: “We will do what we have done in exceptional cases in the past – it’s risky but it’s been done before and that’s to take cash, directly on trucks, and pay people.”
This plan is in contrast with a presentation by South African Social Services Agency (Sassa) on Tuesday to the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), in which they admitted they had no plan in place for when the payment contract expires at the end of the month.
MPs on the social development committee took the department to task, saying different information was being given to different committees.
Dangor, however, said that Sassa’s statement that there was no plan in place related only to future plans for Sassa to take over the payment of grants themselves.
He assured members that negotiations with CPS would stay within the existing budget and address unwanted deductions being made by CPS’s holding company Net1 from social grant recipients’ accounts for things like insurance and airtime.
The negotiations are being headed up by acting CEO Thamo Mzobe, who has been in the position since Tuesday morning as the CEO is on sick leave. The committee also heard that Mzobe does not have a background at social development or Sassa, and had been deployed from the National Development Agency.
Members of the committee, however, showed reservations about this “state of unreadiness”.
ANC MP Pulane Mogotsi said “You know this we are going, we are not going, we are filing, we are coming back, this back and forward thing – what are we saying to those people who are here to represent their constituencies?
“The fear that people are having outside, as a member now, I’m having it,” she said.
ANC MP Sibongile Tsoleli said that people needed assurances that they would be paid.
“Hope is not a strategy,” she said.
Grants may be paid at cash trucks
Appearing before parliament’s social development committee to give a weekly update on the progress in securing the payment of grants on April 1, the director-general of the department, Zane Dangor, said while he did not believe that negotiations for a new contract with CPS would be “scuppered”, there were other ways to pay grants.
Dangor’s reportback was brief as he had been urgently summoned back to Pretoria by President Jacob Zuma.
Negotiations to secure the new contract got under way yesterday and are expected to run until tomorrow.
Dangor said 99% of beneficiaries had bank accounts with Grindrod, CPS’s banking partner, which would allow them to deposit social grants.
About 40% of these preferred to get their grants in cash but said they could use the Post Bank and merchants, if necessary.
In remote areas, he said: “We will do what we have done in exceptional cases in the past – it’s risky but it’s been done before and that’s to take cash, directly on trucks, and pay people.”
This plan is in contrast with a presentation by South African Social Services Agency (Sassa) on Tuesday to the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), in which they admitted they had no plan in place for when the payment contract expires at the end of the month.
MPs on the social development committee took the department to task, saying different information was being given to different committees.
Dangor, however, said that Sassa’s statement that there was no plan in place related only to future plans for Sassa to take over the payment of grants themselves.
He assured members that negotiations with CPS would stay within the existing budget and address unwanted deductions being made by CPS’s holding company Net1 from social grant recipients’ accounts for things like insurance and airtime.
The negotiations are being headed up by acting CEO Thamo Mzobe, who has been in the position since Tuesday morning as the CEO is on sick leave. The committee also heard that Mzobe does not have a background at social development or Sassa, and had been deployed from the National Development Agency.
Members of the committee, however, showed reservations about this “state of unreadiness”.
ANC MP Pulane Mogotsi said “You know this we are going, we are not going, we are filing, we are coming back, this back and forward thing – what are we saying to those people who are here to represent their constituencies?
“The fear that people are having outside, as a member now, I’m having it,” she said.
ANC MP Sibongile Tsoleli said that people needed assurances that they would be paid.
“Hope is not a strategy,” she said.
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