PAYMASTER
Sassa ‘not yet ready for social grants role’
A payments partner will still be required to help with social grants payouts, says Department of Social Development director-general
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) will not be ready to be the paymaster for social grants to nearly 17-million beneficiaries on a turnkey basis from April 1 2017 and, therefore, a payments partner will still be required, Department of Social Development director-general Zane Dangor conceded on Monday. There has been a prolonged lack of clarity about the readiness of Sassa to take over the annual payment of nearly R140bn in social grants and Dangor’s comments during a media briefing by the social services cluster of ministers shed light on the issue. The agency put out a request for information in December, asking all the banks to suggest what role they can play after April 1 while Sassa readies itself to assume full responsibility for social grants payments. The outcome of this request will determine whether the agency will still need the services of Net1 Technologies subsidiary Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) — the current contractor — after April 1 and for how long. S...
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