SOCIAL GRANTS
Sassa CEO says sorry to top court over plan update
Pearl Bengu says the ‘contingency plan’ to pay millions of social grant beneficiaries is ‘not ripe for implementation’
Pearl Bengu, CEO of the South African Social Services Agency (Sassa), has apologised to the Constitutional Court for creating the impression that Sassa was not transparent about having a contingency plan to deal with social grant payments to 2.8-million recipients who receive cash from paypoints administered by Cash Paymaster Services (CPS). Bengu explained to the court the "contingency plan" referred to during a media briefing last Thursday was "not ripe for implementation". She said the plan would require substantial time to implement and had not been costed or properly evaluated. Bengu stressed the plan was still "a work in progress". South African Post Office CEO Mark Barnes told the court the services agreement with Sassa was in respect of electronic payments and did not include cash payments. Barnes said that in response to a question raised during the media conference, he had said that delivery of cash to paypoints had never been regarded as a core capability of the Post Offi...
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