Social advancement minister Lindiwe Zulu has told parliament that some government employees might have gotten the unique Covid-19 social relief of distress grant suggested for the poor and jobless.
Zulu exposed this while providing a warning that the government was coming for its staff members who benefited from the scheme, revealed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to bring relief to the bad whose hardship was amplified by the lockdown.
” The message to those individuals is that we will do whatever to make sure that we get that refund,” she stated on Wednesday.
” I was the minister who entered public and stated it is very bothersome, in fact, to discover that there are individuals who are working for government, who understand that they are getting something, who are applying for the R350 grant, and they shouldn’t have actually looked for the R350,” she stated.
” When you look at the 8 million applications and 5 million people that have been approved and have been paid, you can see that there is a very little margin of people that had the ability to penetrate into the system and get the R350″
Inkatha Liberty Celebration (IFP) MP Liezl van der Merwe pointed out the AG’s statement earlier on Wednesday that Sassa had used old government databases to pay out the R350 grant, and therefore may have paid the incorrect recipients.
Van der Merwe asked the minister whether she would be asking Memela to step down, provided these enormous failures.
” I have, at this moment, no intent whatsoever of asking the CEO to step aside,” responded Zulu.
She reminded MPs that during the early stages of lockdown they were being attacked for delaying payments. She stated the hold-up was since they were putting systems to prevent some of the important things raised by the AG.
When FF Plus MP Tamarin Breedt suggested that if Zulu will not dismiss Memela, maybe she should step down herself due to the fact that someone needed to be held accountable for the failures.
” My worry, however, is that in the [AG’s] opinion there were a lot of system failures. Systems are run by individuals and people are not best.
” With regard to the food parcels, it was discovered by the AG that there were incorrect beneficiaries. They were double-dipping, and there were abnormalities with the food parcels and circulation thereof,” said Breedt.
She asked the minister if comprehensive examinations would be done and whether authorities would be held responsible and face repercussions for failing the poor and the vulnerable.
” If not the CEO of Sassa, then it needs to be you,” added Breedt.
A mad Zulu answered back that she was not going anywhere. She attempted Breedt to compose to President Cyril Ramaphosa if she wished, however restated that she wouldn’t be going anywhere.
While she agreed with Breedt that systems were run by people which people who have done incorrect must be held liable, Zulu was determined that she had not done anything wrong.
” Among the important things that I understand is that this Lindiwe Zulu hasn’t done anything wrong in that space. This Lindiwe Zulu does not sleep … like all the other ministers, we don’t sleep. We work day in and day out. We sit endlessly in meetings because we are committed in one thing and something only: serving the individuals of South Africa,” she said.
Sassa has actually formerly verified that its systems have actually turned down certifying candidates due to database mistakes. But on reconsideration, some would be authorized and eventually received their payment.
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