Sassa expected to ask ConCourt to extend invalid grant payment contract

8 February 2017

Johannesburg - The SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) is expected to ask the Constitutional Court on Wednesday to extend the grant payments contract of Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) for another year.

In 2014, the court declared Sassa’s current contract with CPS invalid. Sassa would effectively be asking the court to overturn its own ruling.

Instead of appointing a new contractor, Sassa submitted a plan to the court to take over the payments to 17 million beneficiaries on April 1, 2017.

“After carefully considering our options, we felt it may cause panic if we try and implement a new system. We acknowledge we have failed,” Sassa official Raphaahle Ramokgopa told Parliament’s social development committee on February 1, Fin24 reported.

Sassa had considered several options, including extending the CPS contract for a year, using Grindrod or another bank to roll out payments, using the SA Post Office, or appointing a contractor to facilitate cash payments at around 10 000 existing pay points.

If the contract with CPS is not extended, 17 million South Africans who rely on social grants will not be paid.

DA MP on the committee, Evelyn Wilson, previously accused Sassa of "forcing an emergency" so that the Constitutional Court would have no choice but to extend the unlawful contract.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.