Q&A with Bridget Masango on problems at social development

Where’s your oversight, why is the department such a mess?

I think the department over decades has lacked the basic aspects of accountability.

Isn’t this what you should be demanding?

Yes, indeed, that’s exactly what we’re about as the portfolio committee in the seventh parliament. We believe the scrutiny of the department’s work has not been where it needed to be.

Is this why 113 employees of the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) have been implicated in corruption?

It is. Of course it is.

Have you asked the minister, Sisi Tolashe, how the agency has managed to pay grants to 75,000 dead people?

That is exactly what our focus is at the moment.

And why the number of children in South Africa with acute malnutrition has gone up 26% in five years?

We have. The minister said the provinces are the ones that determine what to do with the money they get. Which is, if you like, just saying, "It’s not my fault."

Is that good enough?

No, no, not at all. It has been very frustrating for the portfolio committee. When we went to Gauteng because of non-payment of the NPOs who are doing 71% of government’s work, we were told by the national department that the provinces don’t report to [it], they determine their own priorities of what to do with the money.

Have you put it to Tolashe that playing the blame game doesn’t help the 2.2-million children who are eligible for child support grants but are not getting them?

Our question to the minister was: "Why are there no people from Sassa in health facilities so that these children get registered at birth so they can receive grants?" She said they get the information they need from the department of home affairs.

Have you asked her why, then, more than 40% of children in households below the poverty line are not receiving child support grants?

We keep hearing, "No, we’ve done this and we’ve done that and we’ve done the other."

Meanwhile, in the first four months of this year more than 150 children under five died of starvation in public health care facilities, which NGOs say is the tip of the iceberg. So the department is not performing. Where’s the pressure from your committee?

Within the structures and processes we are on this case all along. We believe we are applying as much pressure as can be applied.

What is Tolashe’s excuse for ignoring pleas to close the gap between the child support grant and the food poverty line?

Non-availability of funds.

Have you asked how she can justify spending more than R3m attending a women’s conference   in New York?

She says that will form part of a report she wants to table, because it was more than just [her department] at the summit and the money actually spent by [it] was less.

Did you ask about her deputy director-general’s R1m hotel bill?

I want to give the minister the time she asks, so that when we get the report we can say even this is not acceptable in a department that is bleeding so many millions on people who are defrauding the department.