The Constitutional Court has ordered an investigation into the subsidy crisis, and all the evidence has been collected. The inquiry, which is being held at the Chief Justice's office in the Midrands, was called to hear oral evidence after Minister Batabile Dlamini and her former trusted advisers turned on each other in court papers.
The minister spent four grueling days on the witness stand and had to be admonished multiple times when answering questions. By contrast, testimony from her former advisers lasted less than two days.
Zane Dangaard, a former director-general and trusted advisor to the Department of Social Development, said he was forced to testify before the inquiry.
“In my own experience, the impact of parallel decision-making structures, where formal advice is given by the treasurer and then external advice is sought, leads to changes in direction and the panic that we experienced. was caused.”
After being informed in October 2016 that there were no concrete plans in place for the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) to become responsible for paying social grants on 1 April 2017, Mr Dangor sought an emergency solution. He said that a technical team has been established to come up with a plan.
As a result, an affidavit was prepared for the Constitutional Court detailing exactly the causes of the impending crisis and seeking permission to extend the contract with CPS for another year.
“A month later, the Minister went back to 24 months and effectively decided that full disclosure to the courts no longer needed to be made, but neither I nor the CEO had any involvement in that decision, and Shezi He was not involved.'' Given that the Constitutional Court stripped him of his supervisory powers, the new plan said there was no longer a need to seek consent to extend the CPS. ”
The affidavit was filed by Sassa chief executive Thokozani Magwaza on the same day that the Black Sash Trust alerted the court to the crisis. However, the minister ordered Magwaza to withdraw his affidavit.
Dangor says the minister's sudden change in direction was a turning point.
“The minister consulted people outside the ministry. We know that one of the people she was consulting was the president because the president called Ms Magwaza and asked why she was not attending that meeting. At that meeting, new legal advice was considered by external advisors, but this was not a one-off issue, but a recurring one.”
Mr Dangor said he found it rather strange that the minister would leave him out of the loop on such a serious issue.
“My relationship with the minister has ended. For several years, when she first came to me with a problem, or the first person she came to for advice, it was me. were excluded from most of the “ministerial advisory committees and all meetings related to the work flow.'' ”
This work stream replaced the work package set out by Sassa to prepare it to take over grant payments.
In a sworn statement to the court, Dangor warned that the impression would be created that the crisis was self-inflicted in order to ensure that CPS continued to pay grants despite the invalid contract. Stated.
Mr Dangor told the inquiry that his public falling out with Minister Dlamini had cost him dearly.
“Aside from making the big decision to leave the department I have been working with for over 12 years and the institution I helped establish Sassa, I have previously worked as a member of civil society to extend social welfare grants. But since I resigned, I've had armed guards at my house, I've been followed, there's been home invasions, there's been a level of intimidation for some reason. I don't know where that came from so I won't say. But it was important. So, here we go!”
During cross-examination, the minister's lawyer Ishmael Semenya tried to portray Dangor as an uncooperative witness.
Judge Bernard Ngoepe will hear closing arguments on March 9.
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