The country’s social grants agency has responded to the Constitutional Court’s request for an explanation on the grants crisis.
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) filed the papers to the Constitutional Court late on Monday‚ eNCA reported on Tuesday.
Sassa was ordered by the court last week to answer questions around how the current grants crisis unfolded.
Sassa was meant to respond by 4pm on Monday‚ but only did so electronically at 10.36pm‚ eNCA reported.
The agency said in court papers that it discovered last year that it would be “overtly unrealistic” for it to take over the roll-out social grants.
Social development minister Bathabile Dlamini had been informed in October that an interim solution to the problem would be illegal‚ the court papers reportedly say.
The previous grants contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) was ruled invalid in 2014‚ but CPS was allowed to see out the contract‚ which ends on March 31.
Sassa was meant to continually update the Constitutional Court on how it planned to deal with the grants programme from April 1.
But in recent weeks it has emerged that Sassa intends to renew the CPS contract‚ after saying that it has failed to find a suitable replacement.
The saga has sparked calls for minister Dlamini to resign.
Dlamini has said that part of the reason for the delay in finding a new contractor was that the National Treasury had resisted appeals for assistance in sealing a new deal.
Finance minister Pravin Gordhan is due to give his department’s side of the story on Tuesday before parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa).