Bathabile Dlamini must pay fine of R200,000 or go to jail for perjury

ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) president Bathabile Dlamini was on Friday sentenced to a fine of R200,000 for perjury.

If she does not pay, she faces four years’ imprisonment, of which two are suspended for five years.

This after the Johannesburg magistrate’s court recently found her guilty of perjury.

When sentencing Dlamini, magistrate Betty Khumalo was scathing about her conduct, saying she has shown no remorse for her actions. She had taken an oath when she became a minister that she broke and caused the events that led to the 2017 social grants crisis.

Dlamini, who previously served as minister of social development, was found to have lied under oath during her testimony in an inquiry into her role in the debacle.

Dlamini was convicted of perjury in March, with Khumalo saying she was satisfied Dlamini had in her written statement and oral testimony given false evidence under oath at an inquiry instituted by the Constitutional Court.

One of the issues investigated by the inquiry, headed by retired Gauteng judge president Bernard Ngoepe, was whether Dlamini had appointed work streams of the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) to ensure the agency could take over the payment of social grants from Cash Paymaster Services. The Constitutional Court said the inquiry found Dlamini had appointed individuals to lead the parallel work streams and those individuals reported to her. The work streams were supposed to report to the Sassa executive committee, not to the minister.

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