South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) CEO Thokozani Magwaza has apologised for the crisis surrounding social grants. "We dropped the ball. We were advised in May 2016 and nothing was done at the time. We were told Sassa would not be able to pay grants this year and we did not do anything about it. We apologise to the nation." He said grants would be paid on April 1 first despite Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) CEO Serge Belamant saying that the delays in concluding a contract with Sassa could result to grants not being paid on the date. "I do not argue with Belamant. I don’t think that he was talking the whole truth because he knows that processes start on the 20th of each month‚ but money is transferred from the Treasury three days before we pay the monies over to the beneficiaries. He was just playing ball as a businessman trying to coerce us into a space I don’t think we wanted to go‚" Magwaza said.
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