South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) CEO, Thokozani Magwaza, resigned on Monday after accepting an exit package following a consultative process led by the legal services of Advocate Nkosinathi Dladla.
Magwaza was 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.
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 was 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 week 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.
The Social Development Department thanked Magwaza for his work in a statement on Monday afternoon. They did not release details on his exit package.
Last week, The Daily Maverick reported that Magwaza was being put under pressure to leave because of damning evidence he allegedly holds about Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini's role in the Sassa debacle. He is most likely to testify against Dlamini in the public inquiry about her role in the Sassa pension payment debacle.
Magwaza submitted an affidavit saying that Dlamini's version of why Sassa was not ready to take over the distribution of social grants as from the end March was not true.
Magwaza also cancelled a R47 million workstream contract set up by the Minister. It is alleged that Dlamini and some advisers, in the form of the workstreams, had constructed the illegal new contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS).
They had however excluded Sassa and department officials from this process.