Zuma should recuse himself and let Parliament do its Job

20 March 2017

Following the Constitutional Court ruling to extend the contract between the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) and Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), the DA calls on President Jacob Zuma and Minister Bathabile Dlamini to recuse themselves from the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on social security and let Parliament do its job and oversee the implementation of the new contract.

The Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng in the court proceedings suggested that Dlamini is inept to do her job, stating that her handling of the social grants debacle “can only be characterised as an absolute incompetence”.

Dlamini’s “incompetence” is a reflection of the state of our current government, and neither Dlamini nor the President can, therefore, be trusted with overseeing this new contract. In fact, Dlamini can no longer be trusted with running an entire governmental department and must be fired immediately.

President Zuma’s decision to establish and chair an ICM, which includes the “inept” Minister of Social Development, to oversee the implementation of this contract, is a clear conflict of interest.

This is in light of reports last week that Zuma’s special adviser, Michael Hulley, met with Minister Bathabile Dlamini and high-ranking CPS officials to discuss the extension of the CPS contract.

Bathabile Dlamini has clearly bungled the entire process of institutionalising the payment of social grants. So desperate was Dlamini to ensure the extension of the invalid contract.

The ICM should take a step back and allow Parliament to perform its job, in line with Constitutional Court ruling.

This is why the DA has already requested Parliament to act and called for an ad hoc committee to be established to investigate the role of the Minister in the creation of this crisis, the continuation of grant payments and the way forward in order to avoid any further crises to this vital lifeline.

The DA also believes that the Public Protector, Adv Busisiwe Mkhwebane, confirming the DA’s request to probe Dlamini, will shed light on the Minister’s involvement in this debacle.

The DA will continue the fight to ensure that those who were responsible for putting the livelihoods of 17 million vulnerable South Africans at risk are held to account.

Issued by Bridget Masango, DA Shadow Minister of Social Development, 20 March 2017