BUSINESS NEWS - The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has experienced more delays in contracting the South African Post Office (Sapo) to take over social grant payments from incumbent Cash Paymaster Services (CPS).
It missed another self-imposed deadline in signing a contract with Sapo to distribute more than R130 billion in social grants to about 17 million beneficiaries annually by April 1 2018.
The social grants agency initially told Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) that a contract with Sapo would be signed on August 31, which it subsequently missed.
When Sassa was hauled before Scopa on September 5, it revised the deadline date to September 13.
It missed this deadline.
Two more revised deadlines were then set by Sassa – September 16 and 28 – which Scopa chairperson Themba Godi said were missed.
This means that Sassa missed four self-imposed deadlines in two months, which raised fears that the agency might not comply with the Constitutional Court’s order that it must phase out its contact with CPS in the next six months.
“This is becoming a great concern for us. Unless Sassa awards the contract to the Post Office now, they are creating a perfect storm for us to continue with CPS.
"No other company can take over the social grant payments at short notice. CPS is what we don’t want,” said Godi.
