Plan Z

The social grants crisis is a secret machination to get Nkosazana Zuma elected president.

- Martin Welz

EVERYONE IN SOUTH AFRICA, from the judges of the Constitutional Court to the poorest of the poor in the rural hills of Zululand, wants to know why the Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini and the entire Zuma government allowed the social grants crisis to be driven all the way to the Constitutional Court, with only days left before the entire system was at risk of collapsing.

The answer, Noseweek has found with the help of a top government informer and the minutes of a meeting held by Cell C board members in the early months of 2016 (not long before Dlamini suddenly lost all interest in her officials’ alternative plans for taking in-house control of the distribution of social grants) is both unexpected and obvious. But first a recap:

DA shadow minister for Social Development Bridget Masango said in a press statement: “The DA believes that Dlamini manufactured the social grants crisis to force the extension of the invalid R139 billion contract [turnover per year] between Sassa and [the American-controlled company] Cash Paymaster Services.”

Masango went on to note: “The DA has continuously called on the President to remove Minister Dlamini, however, Zuma continues to protect her because she is a key member of his ‘Defence League’ that helps him remain in power.”

She was right on both scores. “With due respect, it is simply incomprehensible. One seeks in vain [from] the minister… what she did‚ why she did it‚ what she knew and why she did what she did.” – Advocate Geoff Budlender SC‚ representing Black Sash commenting on Minister Dlamini’s affidavit supposedly explaining her role in the grants debacle to the Constitutional Court.

Something significant was missing; was being withheld, Budlender suggested – and he was absolutely right.