Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini could be facing a motion of no confidence in Parliament if the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) can show no progress made in the grants handover by Tuesday.

The chairperson of the standing committee on public accounts Themba Godi on Friday said he will push for a debate on Dlamini's fitness to hold office if a scheduled joint meeting next week bares no fruit.

A no confidence vote in a Cabinet minister would be unprecedented, as it is the president's prerogative to hire and fire ministers.

Dlamini, Sassa and the South African Post Office (Sapo) are due before the standing committee on public accounts and the portfolio committee on Tuesday to account for their stalled deal.

"If on Tuesday, we don't get anything tangible, my personal view would be to request Parliament for an urgent debate on the matter, in which I will be pushing that Parliament should pass a vote of no confidence on the minister," he told News24.

"If on Tuesday they come back and they say there is no agreement, we will conclude that there is nothing substantive that they are bringing and we will lay all of it at the door of social development."

If Dlamini fails to attend the meeting for the third time this month, Godi would also present the proposal to the committee.

A passed vote would not necessarily mean any action against Dlamini, as President Jacob Zuma has the final say over his Cabinet, but would represent the will of Parliament.

'Nefarious suspicions'

Godi said that a deal with the Post Office to handle core banking functions in the grants system would give the struggling entity a major capitalisation boost.

Under the current leadership, which includes Sapo CEO Mark Barnes, the Post Office can be cleaned up and restored following "bad leadership decisions in the past", he said.

"We've always said that this very important service should be provided by a government entity. We do not think there should be any delay in all of this."

It would also take crucial grants money, which is paid for by South African taxpayers, away from private companies.

If the deal fails, Godi said it would confirm suspicions that there was a concerted effort to have invalid service provider Cash Paymaster Services continue in the role.

"It will have achieved what some nefarious people wanted to achieve all along, that CPS retain the contract beyond March.

"Which other company can take that responsibility on before March? We only have five months."

'Our core strength is Post Bank'

Barnes on Thursday said the current deal does not cater to the Post Office's core banking strengths.

Sassa's deal only included one of four possible services, excluded banking, cash payments to beneficiaries and production and distribution of Sassa cards.

"What they've asked us to do is develop a grants payments system, which is essentially an IT function," he told News24.

"We would argue whoever develops that system needs to integrate it with their banking system. And the core strengths the Post Office has is Post Bank."

It therefore does not make sense to ask the Post Office to only develop the IT system, and ignore three other core functions it tendered for.

Barnes did not want to pre-empt the process as there were very important meetings to attend before Tuesday's showdown, nor would he be drawn on speculation surrounding reasons for the delay.

He did stress though that the time was getting "very, very tight".

"In any change of supplier, you need an extraordinary amount of co-operation between the incumbent and the newcomer. There are only so many hours in the day. But we will extend those hours for the national interest."

Post Office stability concerns

In a joint report to the Constitutional Court however, Auditor General Kimi Makwetu flagged the Post Office's financial stability as a possible risk.

The report quoted the now defunct Sassa works streams' concern that: "The vendor has provided information that is heavily reliant on a future state capability without proving current capability."

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba announced a R3.7-billion bailout for the struggling entity.

Sassa is also concerned that the Post Office only has two thousand outlets, while the grants agency says it has ten thousand.

Sources close to the process say they are concerned beneficiaries would spend more on travel costs to post offices where they are not available.

The department did not respond to a request for comment by the requested deadline.

Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi told News24 that Dlamini will be holding a press conference on Monday morning in East London.

In August, disgruntled journalists staged a walk-out after Dlamini was two hours late for a media briefing on the grants issue in Polokwane.

Dlamini failed to appear before two parliamentary committees over the last two weeks to discuss the deal, raising the ire of both majority and opposition MPs.

MPs on the portfolio committee on social development said Sassa is heading for another crisis before the March deadline.