GRANT PAYMENTS
NATASHA MARRIAN: Sassa debacle a spectacle of arrogance and ineptitude
‘It is another example of state capture — how the government and the recipients of 17-million grant are at the mercy of a company pulling the minister’s strings to an end that has yet to be uncovered’
Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng cut to the heart of the social grants fiasco in the Constitutional Court on Wednesday. "Why can’t we order Sassa to do what it exists to do?" he asked of the minister’s attorneys. The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) was created to pay social grants. What we saw in court was yet another example of governance gone horribly wrong and a minister who is arrogant in the face of her own ineptitude. It is another example of state capture — how the government and the recipients of 17-million grant are at the mercy of a company pulling the minister’s strings to an end that has yet to be uncovered. Again, the court has had to expose how the government has failed in its responsibility to its citizens. Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini’s own lawyer admitted that the minister was "remiss" in fulfilling her responsibilities.But the saga follows a trend of a lack of accountability tainting the Cabinet. On Tuesday, another serial offender, Commu...
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