South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) CEO Thokozani Magwaza is reportedly being pressured into accepting a "lucrative exit package" to leave the agency, and has been informed that his life is under threat, since cancelling R47-million's worth of workstream contracts, initially set up by social development minister Bathabile Dlamini.
Daily Maverick reported on Friday that while Magawaza was under pressure to quietly take the exit package, negotiators had until now refused to put this in writing.
Dlamini put in place workstreams, teams of consultants essentially paid to do the work of existing Sassa employees, that reported directly to her. These contracts were cancelled on June 29.
He is reportedly seen as a threat and an obstacle to Dlamini and her allies in the organisation, and has been opposed to her handling of the social grants crisis until now. Dlamini reportedly filed court papers this wee conditionally agreeing to a public inquiry into the social grants crisis, which eventually saw an unconstitutional contract with social grant provider Net1 extended as Sassa was unable to secure another provider.
According to Daily Maverick, Treasury wrote to Magwaza in May this year informing him that the money being spent on the workstreams was irregular expenditure and that the procurement of these consultants was not properly done.
During the Constitutional Court case regarding the social grants tender, Magwaza and former department of social development director-general Zane Dangor said in court papers that the appointment of these workstreams by Dlamini had stopped the possibility of Sassa being able to pay the grants in-house.