Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Mondli Gungubele and his Social Development counterpart Lindiwe Zulu will not resign from their positions even if the non-payment debacle of social grant persists.
Instead, said the ministers, they will leave their fate in the hands of their boss, President Cyril Ramaphosa, to decide if they are fit for purpose.
The duo is at the centre of the non-payment of social grants to tens of thousands of recipients who use Postbank, which is under Gungubele’s political authority.
The grants are distributed by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa), which Zulu is its political principal.
Briefing the media on Thursday, Gungubele blamed a technical glitch within Postbank for leaving pensioners in limbo.
According to him, the problem has been wholly resolved and all the pensioners who were affected can now access their money.
This is contrary to evidence that some recipients still await payments.
Gungubele said the problem was as a result of a change of system by the Postbank, necessitated by, among other things, its application for a state bank licence from the Reserve Bank.
The problem has, however, been nipped in the bud, according to Gungubele, and will not occur again, as Sassa prepares to distribute social grants for next month.
“Noting that we will start with the October payment cycle in less than two weeks, we have started preparing to ensure that we do not encounter challenges that were experienced by our clients this month.
“Our officials will continue engaging to ensure that we are ready to pay on time in the next month,” said Gungubele.
Sunday World pressed him on whether he would consider as consequence management to resign alongside Zulu and the CEOs of Sassa and Postbank should their word that all was in order not stand the test of time.
Gungubele said they are not willing to put their heads on the chopping block.
“You are asking if these problems occur the following week, will we resign? I want to say, it will be for our employers [Ramaphosa] to weigh the weight of our inefficiencies.
“We will always subject ourselves to the will of our employers. But we are not focused on whether we will be fired or not fired, but to do the best we can to resolve this issue.”
Gungubele said he is briefing Ramaphosa daily about the non-payment saga and steps taken to resolve the problem.
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