Jeff Radebe tells Parliament Sassa grant agreement will be signed within 10 days

Minister in the Presidency for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Jeff Radebe told a joint sitting of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts and the portfolio committee on social development that the inter-ministerial committee on social security would have an agreement on grant provision by next week.

Radebe was briefing the MPs following a directive for National Treasury to facilitate an agreement between the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) and the SA Post Office (Sapo) on the provision of grants to more than 17m South Africans from April next year.

A deadlock developed despite the Constitutional Court ruling invalidating Cash Paymaster Services as a service provider in the provision of grants and instructing Sassa to develop capacity to provide grants on its own.

However‚ Sassa attempted to stiff the Post Office by saying the state owned entity did not have the capacity to help it serve much of the functions CPS assisted with. The Post Office has maintained that it is able to assist Sassa in delivering.

Radebe told the parliamentarians that President Jacob Zuma appointed him as chair of the inter-ministerial committee on Monday and that Sassa as well as the Post Office would have an agreement drafted for cooperation by next week Friday.

“We held a meeting yesterday to look at all the issues that pertain to this matter. We want to craft the program of action we have embarked upon. The committee met on Tuesday to consider progress on the implementation of the Constitutional Court order‚” said Radebe.

Radebe said the inter-ministerial committee considered the reports from Sassa‚ the Post Office as well as Treasury’s report from its engagement with the two. The IMC met as the two entities continued with engagements with each other and Parliament‚ he said.

“Treasury confirmed the hybrid model for the payment of grants. The committee is of the view that all are prepared to move forward with an integrated payment system by government‚ which will be managed by Sassa and Sapo‚” Radebe said.

Radebe said the inter-ministerial committee was committee to assisting Sassa to comply with the Constitutional Court order and stressed that no Sassa grant payment card would expire on 31 December 2017.

The meeting on Wednesday morning was attended by delegations from the departments of telecommunications and postal services‚ state security‚ the Hawks‚ the Post Office‚ Treasury and social development.