Social Grants crisis: Dlamini in Addis Ababa instead of in Parliament

25 January 2017

The DA has learnt that the Minster of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, is currently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on ANC Women’s League business.

This is despite the need for an urgent update on what progress her department has made in taking over the distribution of social grants ahead of the 1 April 2017 deadline.

It is shameful that Dlamini would rather attend to party business than make herself available for an important parliamentary committee meeting on the distribution of social grants by SASSA.

It is now becoming increasingly obvious why the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee rushed to cancel this important meeting, which was scheduled to take place today.

It might also explain why the 31 questions which the DA submitted to SASSA following their shambolic ‘Request for Information’ (RFI) last week have not been answered.

According to SASSA, these were meant to be answered by close of business yesterday.

This is quite frankly a slap in the face of the millions of South Africans who rely on social assistance from the state to get by every day, and who are rightfully worried that they may be without support in less than 3 months’ time.

The DA will now seek an urgent explanation from the CEO of SASSA, Mr Thokozani Magwaza (who remains too busy to attend a parliamentary meeting because of his attendance at the ANC Lekgotla), as to why these 31 questions were not answered.

We will also be writing to the Leader of Government Business, Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, to urge him to remind members of the executive that they have important responsibilities at home in South Africa, and in Parliament.

The DA will exhaust every avenue and will not rest until we have clarity on who will be responsible for distributing social grants to those who need it most.

Issued by Bridget Masango, DA Shadow Minister of Social Development, 25 January 2017