Committee strongly condemns absence of Social Security Agency
18 October 2017
Officials from both the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) and the Department of Social Development today failed to appear before the Portfolio Committee on Social Development.
The Committee noted the apology from the Minister, Ms Bathabile Dlamini, but was concerned by the absence of the Deputy Minister, Ms Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, who has not attended one Committee meeting this year.
Furthermore, the Committee strongly condemned SASSA’s gross negligence in failing to appear before the Committee to provide an update on the migration of the social grant scheme, which is to be handed over from Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) to the South African Post Office (Sapo).
A letter received from the Acting SASSA CEO, Ms Pearl Bhengu, stated that no substantial progress has been made since the last meeting with the Committee and requested a postponement until November 2017. The Committee expressed its unhappiness on this score, saying it has a constitutional mandate to perform oversight and will not be dictated to on how this should be done.