D-Day for Dlamini to explain grants crisis to Constitutional Court

The Department of Social Development has until 4pm today to explain to the Constitutional Court how social grants will be distributed from next month.

The status of the grants programme has been uncertain in recent weeks‚ given that the current contract between the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) expires at the end of this month‚ with no clear indication of what will happen next.

In 2014 the Constitutional Court declared Sassa’s contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) invalid and instructed the Department of Social Development to explain to the court how it planned to roll out grants in future.

But earlier this month it emerged that a new contract had not yet been signed.

The situation has sparked calls for social development minister Bathabile Dlamini to resign.

Dlamini has drawn criticism for her approach to the looming grants deadline‚ even though she has given assurances that payments to pensioners‚ the disabled and children will be made from the beginning of April.

Last week the Constitutional Court ordered Dlamini’s department to answers questions about how the crisis had escalated to the present situation.

President Jacob Zuma’s special adviser played a key role in ensuring that CPS retained the contract‚ The Sunday Times reported yesterday.

Secret meetings between senior Sassa managers‚ and Michael Hulley‚ Zuma’s special adviser‚ raised questions about the presidency’s role in the grants crisis‚ the newspaper reported.