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The Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, is avoiding giving any commitment that officials involved in the illegal R10 billion tender awarded by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) will be held to account.

In an oral question session in Parliament yesterday, I asked Minister Dlamini whether she will take action against guilty officials responsible for causing the SASSA tender to be declared invalid and illegal.

The Minister simply avoided my question. In fact, the Minister went as far as saying that “it is a victory for beneficiaries that the tender was not set aside”.

On Tuesday, Judge Elias Matojane declared that the R10 billion tender, awarded to Cash Paymaster Systems (CPS) by SASSA to administer social grants across all nine provinces, was illegal and invalid. Yesterday, Minister Dlamini refused to admit that someone in the department must have acted in an illegal manner for a tender to be declared illegal and invalid in a court of law.

The Minister must identify the officials or other persons responsible for this bungle. I have called on the Public Protector to investigate. The Minister seems happy to sweep the court judgment under the carpet and avoid examining the obviously flawed processes involved, and the individuals involved in those processes.

The SASSA tender has been very controversial:

• On the 1st of April, the Sunday Independent revealed that Mr Thabane Zulu, who was a member of the SASSA tender adjudication committee, received a R1.4 million deposit into his personal account a few weeks before deliberations on the bid commenced.
• It was also revealed that a committee member, whose name was not given, received a R600 000 payment towards his mortgage bond soon after the contract was awarded to CPS.
• The involvement of President Zuma’s lawyer, Michael Hulley, was brought into question when he was brought in by SASSA as “strategic adviser” for the bid.

I will today be writing to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee for Social Development, Ms Yolanda Botha, to request that she call Minister Dlamini before the Committee to explain what steps she will be taking to identify the guilty officials, and once identified, what she will be doing to hold them accountable.

The Minister cannot allow the guilty officials to remain unaccountable for their actions. I will demand answers. It is only fair to South Africa’s 15 million social grant recipients that appropriate action is taken against those who showed utter disregard for a tender that is intended to improve their well being and quality of life.