In a series of barefaced lies, misinformation and distortions, the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) is yet again seeking refuge behind almost 17 million poor people, to cover up its inaction and connivance in giving effect to a Constitutional Court judgment rendering its contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) invalid and illegal. In four weeks the Court’s grace period of 36 months for SASSA to get its house in order will come and go, and still we wait.

For most of the 17 million grant beneficiaries – and to the taxpayer – the elaborate but empty PowerPoint presentation made to the Portfolio Committee on Social Services in February 2017 is worthless, particularly when neither Minister Bathabile Dlamini nor the CEO of the agency, Thokozani Magwaza, bothered to show up at the meeting. The disregard for the poor is matched by the absence of accountability to the Legislature too.