Subscribe

ConCourt sets deadline for SASSA payments plan

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 13 Nov 2017
The Constitutional Court directs SASSA to deliver details of its new payments plan.
The Constitutional Court directs SASSA to deliver details of its new payments plan.

The Constitutional Court (ConCourt) has instructed the SA Social Security Agency (SASSA) to deliver a comprehensive plan by 8 December, detailing how it will pay more than 17 million grant recipients.

The ConCourt's order says the plan must "specify matters such as definite roles and responsibilities, precise timelines, dependencies, desired outcomes and risk-mitigation measures".

Following delivery of the plan, monthly progress reports must be given to the court on implementation of the plan, it adds.

The highest court in the land also directed SASSA to fully comply with any present or future requests by a panel of experts for access to information held by the agency. If unable to do so, SASSA must inform the panel of the reasons within three working days of the request.

According to the social development department, minister Bathabile Dlamini has directed SASSA to comply with the ConCourt's directives and instructed acting CEO Pearl Bengu to avail all resources that may be needed by other government departments or state agencies to carry out these orders.

SASSA and the South African Post Office, which is favoured to take over the payments function, have failed to find a working solution on the issue of social grant payments. An Inter-Ministerial Committee on Comprehensive Social Security has committed to ensure a co-operation deal between the two entities is signed by Friday, 17 November.

In March, the ConCourt extended SASSA's contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) for one year to avert a social grants catastrophe.

CPS is responsible for the distribution of social grants to more than 10 million SASSA beneficiaries. Its contract, which was declared invalid by the ConCourt in 2014, would have come to an end on 31 March. The court, however, suspended the invalidity so grants could continue to be paid while SASSA made another plan for 1 April 2018.

Share