The IFP has taken note of the Constitutional Court ruling today, pertaining to the SASSA and CPS matter, and we welcome the Court’s ruling in this regard.
The Court’s judgement today provides much needed certainty, to grant recipients, who were worried that because of our Government’s gross mishandling of the SASSA scandal, they would not receive their grants on 1 April 2017.
We further welcome the Court’s instruction that CPS’s unlawful contract only be extended for a limited period of 12 months, while instructing the company to ensure that the personal information of grant recipients is kept confidential.
For far too long, CPS and Net1 have left vulnerable South Africans, more vulnerable by sharing their details with companies who have defrauded them through illegal deductions. We hope that once CPS’s contract expires, legal action will be taken against them for having abused the grant system and grant recipients.
The IFP remains of the opinion that Minister Bathabile Dlamini is no longer fit to hold office. We believe that she single-handedly manufactured this crisis and must be held responsible. She must resign. Minister Dlamini must also be held personally responsible for SASSA’s legal cost. It is another sad day for President Zuma’s administration, that a Court has had to manage the State’s affairs because his administration has again been found grossly incompetent.
At the heart of this crisis is maladministration, gross negligence and incompetence. But that is not all. At the heart of this crisis, is a dodgy tender, a rogue Minister, and a ruling party that no longer cares for the poor.
The IFP will therefore continue to seek full accountability pertaining to the CPS and SASSA scandal. We will follow-up with the Speaker with regards to our request, which we sent to her on Tuesday, for the establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee to probe this crisis. Such a Committee must get to the bottom of this scandal, and look inter alia, into the Minister’s fitness to hold office and alleged corruption pertaining to the CPS tender.
Contact:
Ms Liezl van der Merwe, MP
082 729 2510.
