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The South African Communist Party has noted with concern the termination of the employment contract of the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) CEO Mr Thokozani Magwaza.

The Department of Social Development has stated that the reason for the termination was a mutual agreement. As to how this came about the Department did not bother to elucidate. The SACP is challenging the Minister of Social Development Ms Bathabile Dlamini to publicly deny or confirm whether Magwaza's contract as Sassa's CEO was terminated on the basis of the so-called irretrievably broken relationship.

Magwaza is well-known for his firm position in defence and advancement of the ANC's resolution, which is also an SACP resolution, that the Post Office/Bank must be responsible for social grants distribution as opposed to a private company. Among others Magwaza deposed an affidavit in a Constitutional Court case on the crisis that engulfed social grants distribution.

The affidavit exposed as unreliable Minister Dlamini's version of events leading to a private company, Cash Paymaster Services (SPS), a subsidiary of a US listed private monopoly, NET1, firmly maintaining its hold on social grants distribution.

This equation of control over social grants banking, administration and distribution includes the Grindrod Bank, a bank controlled among others by colonial and apartheid era private monopoly interests. The Guptas have reportedly also attempted to encircle the equation through an acquisition gone wrong.

Issued by SACP