Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini says the South African Social Security Agency needs R6 billion and up to five years to take full control of the social grants system.<\/p>\n
Dlamini told the parliamentary portfolio committee on social development on Wednesday that Sassa won’t be able to take over the grants scheme in full before April 2018.<\/p>\n
“The company who is paying, CPS, has to go [in one year], we agree, but the takeover is going to be a five-year process.”<\/p>\n
She said that at the moment, Sassa does not have the expertise to manage the grants scheme on its own.<\/p>\n
“We don’t have staff who understand biometrics at Sassa. We don’t have banking, payment, costing, modelling, cyber risk assessment.”<\/p>\n
She said estimates for Sassa to prepare itself in full in those five years will be around R6bn, but claimed it would lower costs in the long run.<\/p>\n
“What South Africans should do is look at the whole process as an investment. Once Sassa starts paying, you won’t be paying this amount of money.”<\/p>\n
Sassa CEO Thokozani Magwaza, though, disagreed with Dlamini on the timespan and said it could be achieved in two to three years.<\/p>\n
Dlamini ultimately defended her department, saying they were “not the first department not to reach its targets”.<\/p>\n
She criticised those who created false hype around the payments of grants, claiming the April payments were largely successful.<\/p>\n
However, she understood that her department’s failures affected the vulnerable.<\/p>\n
‘Come 2018, there will be no CPS’<\/strong><\/p>\n Magwaza reassured the committee that, despite how long it may take for Sassa to take over the scheme fully, CPS will not be called upon beyond March 31, 2018.<\/p>\n “We have been given 12 months to phase out CPS. There is no doubt about that, we have not been asked, we have been told,” Magwaza said.<\/p>\n Magwaza said they would have a workshop with the South African Post Office next week with a view to the post office coming on board to fill the short-term gap left by CPS’s departure.<\/p>\n They could also still go on tender for a new service provider, or partial services to aid the post office.<\/p>\n Magwaza said the timeframe for a full takeover will be determined by the above factors, and therefore could take as little as two years, or a maximum of five.<\/p>\n He said they have not pronounced on timeframes yet.<\/p>\n ‘One-stop shop’<\/strong><\/p>\n A new scheme will also take into account an open banking option, getting all major banks involved rather than one specific bank.<\/p>\n Ideally though, the best solution is for Sassa to be a “one-stop” shop, where the agency is in control of all aspects including banking, and are currently talking to the Reserve Bank for permission.<\/p>\n Sassa could not present its annual performance plan on Wednesday, as it had not been changed to take into account the March Constitutional Court ruling.<\/p>\n They would arrange for a later date, but time was running out ahead of the annual budget votes in two weeks, where MPs will decide the next financial year’s budget.<\/p>\n