Sassa problems started with CEO, says Bathabile Dlamini
The minister tells inquiry that head of social grant agency failed to engage with her
Problems started at the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) when CEO Thokozani Magwaza was appointed, Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini says. Dlamini was testifying on Wednesday at an inquiry into whether she should be held personally liable for the Sassa debacle which led to the agency not being able to take over the administering of social grants in April 2017. During cross-examination by Magwaza’s legal representative, Richard Solomon, Dlamini denied that she had told the CEO not to interfere with Sassa’s controversial work streams and to rather focus on the day-to-day running of the agency. She denied that the work streams were instructed to directly report to her. The work streams were appointed by Dlamini to help Sassa put together a plan for the agency to take over the administering of social grants by the April 1 2017 deadline after the Constitutional Court found that a contract with Cash Paymaster Services was illegal. There have been allegations that t...
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