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The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] rejects any contract extension for Cash Paymaster Services [CPS] for another six months. The South African Social Security Agency [Sassa] has once again approached the Constitutional Court, asking for another extension for the takeover of social grant payments.

Sassa made a commitment to start using Postbank as from 1st February 2018 to pay social grants. We are now baffled as to why they would need to extend CPS contract by another six months when the constitutional court made it unequivocally clear that the contract with CPS was both illegal and invalid. Sassa was given until March 2018 to appoint a new service provider and they had just over a year to ensure that they end the illegal contract with CPS.

As NEHAWU, we hold a strong view that it is disingenuous for the department to now claim that they need a “phase-in and phase-out process” when they were well aware that they need to cut ties with CPS come March 2018.

The fact that there is currently an inquiry investigating the role of Minister Bathabile Dlamini in the social grants crisis should have prompted the Sassa to handle this matter with more diligence. More than 11 million people rely on social grants for survival so it is very imperative that Sassa reduces sloppiness and total disregard for social grant recipients.

We remain unwavering in our view that outsourcing breeds corruption, the tender system has proven beyond reasonable doubt that it is inherently amenable to corruption. The national union will continue to advocate for insourcing and for government to build its own capacity to undertake projects instead of relying on private service providers to dispense service delivery.

Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat