DA welcomes Bathabile Dlamimi's perjury judgment

10 March 2022

The DA welcomes magistrate Betty Khumalo’s finding that former Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamimi is guilty of perjury.

The DA laid charges against Dlamini in 2018 after retired Judge Bernard Ngoepe, who led the enquiry into the 2017 South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) grant crisis, found that “some of Minister Dlamini’s evidence under oath in the affidavits before this [Constitutional] Court and orally before the Inquiry was false” and that she may have “misled the Court to protect herself from the consequences of her behaviour”.

The DA now awaits the sentencing on 1 April 2022.

We believe that this judgement should act as a wake-up call to politicians who forget that they are in their position of power at the behest of ordinary South Africans. No one is above the law.

Millions of vulnerable citizens are reliant on their SASSA grants, and the responsibility of caring for those individuals should never be taken lightly.

Issued by Bridget Masango, DA Shadow Minister of Social Development, 10 March 2022