Fire Bathabile Dlamini, Mr President

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) calls on President Cyril Ramaphosa to sack Minister Bathabile Dlamini.

The recently released report to the Constitutional Court by Judge Bernard Ngoepe called the Minister’s explanation for her failure to explain herself over the SASSA debacle “unconvincing” and rejected it.

As the Minister of Social Development, Dlamini oversaw the disastrous Cash Paymaster Services contract with SASSA. She was moved to the position of Minister of Women by President Cyril Ramaphosa, to the disappointment of society.

OUTA believes that the damage she did to Social Development remains insurmountable and has asked President Ramaphosa to fire her as a minister.

“She deliberately delayed the implementation of an alternative to CPS, lied about the capabilities of the South African Post Office (SAPO) and manipulated the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) reports to ensure that the contract was extended to benefit CPS.  It is ludicrous that the extension will result in recipients now personally paying an additional R10 in bank administration fees, an amount they cannot afford,” says Dominique Msibi, OUTA’s Portfolio Manager for Special Projects, in her letter to President Ramaphosa.

Ministers who damage one ministry should be held accountable and not reappointed to another ministry in the hope that the damage they caused goes away.

“Minister Dlamini does not deserve either the title or the role of Minister,” Msibi wrote in her letter.

“It is ironic that she has been moved to the Ministry of Women, considering her record of abusing the benefits meant for oppressed elderly women and vulnerable children,” says Msibi.

Msibi's letter to the President is here. 

View the the earlier letter here.