It was a day of legal drama as judges laid into Dlamini over social grants
'If something is done that is unconstitutional and unlawful is it not for you to spend sleepless nights to ensure it does not happen again?'
Advocate Andrew Breitenbach SC‚ representing embattled social development minister Bathabile Dlamini and the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa)‚ is unlikely to look back on Wednesday March 15 as the highlight of his legal career. If court cases were decided on the sheer volume of barbed comments directed at counsel and their clients by the presiding judges‚ Breitenbach would probably have thrown in the towel after a bruising day of argument in a Constitutional Court case brought by Black Sash to ensure social grants continue to be paid to some 11 million South Africans come April 1. It was always going to be a tough job defending Dlamini who has come under withering public criticism over her handling of Sassa’s contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) to pay the grants. The contract‚ already declared invalid by the ConCourt back in 2014‚ ends on March 31 and the judges wanted to know exactly what Dlamini had been doing since then to get Sassa’s house in order so it could take over...
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