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Explosive allegations have surfaced about millions of rands in social grant cash allegedly being handed over in a shady underground parking lot and stashed in car boots at the Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) offices in Rosebank, Johannesburg.

The jaw-dropping claims were revealed in an affidavit filed by a former top-brass security officer at Fidelity Services Group (FSG).

CPS is one of three companies that the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) hired to pay grants in cash across the country, now at the heart of explosive allegations about money mysteriously moving from vaults to car boots. FSG is the company tasked with securing the transport of cash from depots to social grant pay points.

According to the former senior FSG officer, the scandal is rather juicy. In his affidavit to the Zondo Commission back in 2020 (which, unsurprisingly, went nowhere at the time, per The Sunday Times), he spilt the beans about personally delivering bags of cash to Nanda Pillay, the then-COO of CPS. The cash was allegedly stashed in the boots of two cars — one being Pillay’s flashy BMW.

Now, if that doesn’t raise eyebrows, what will? The use of private vehicles and the glaring absence of paperwork screams dodgy dealings. The Sunday Times hinted that the cash may have been siphoned off to benefit CPS insiders or their cronies.

The Citizen reports that although there is no suggestion that Fidelity Services Group and its CEO, Wahl Bartmann, pocketed any of the loot, this whole saga has left South Africans wondering who, exactly, was getting fat off money meant for the most vulnerable.

“Mr Wahl Bartmann was the person who instructed me personally via telephone to execute the collections and drop-offs, after which I chose the teams for each collection and drop,” the officer said in the affidavit.

“It was during 2010 that I made my concerns clear to Wahl that I am uncomfortable with being involved in the cash drops to Nanda without any paperwork, and that it is at least in contravention of the South African Reserve Bank codes and regulations in respect of handling or transporting cash.”

According to the paper, FSG declined to respond to specific allegations in the affidavits. Meanwhile, Pillay had a cheeky explanation for it all. He told the paper that the cash was “often delivered” to CPS offices because the company had an ATM for cash disbursements. But, in a move straight out of the ‘nothing to see here’ handbook, he flatly denied that any of that cash ever ended up in his BMW.

“I have no idea what this guy is talking about, and I am not even sure who he is.”

Sassa CEO Busisiwe Memela revealed that social grants cost taxpayers over R250 billion a year while tabling the agency’s 2023/2024 annual report before the Portfolio Committee on Social Development in Parliament.

But let’s not forget who’s really caught in the middle of this mess — the vulnerable folks depending on social grants. We’re talking about our pensioners, children on the support grant, those in need of care, war veterans, people with disabilities, and foster kids. These are Sassa’s core clients, the ones who rely on the system.

Sassa serves a whopping 19 million core clients, with an additional 9 million folks receiving the Special Relief of Distress (SRD) grant. All in all, that’s a staggering 28 million beneficiaries, funded by a modest 7.4 million taxpayers.

The agency forks out at least R200 billion on these core social grants, and when you throw in the SRD, that figure jumps to at least R250 billion.

That’s a lot of cash in play, and the stakes are high when it comes to who’s getting their hands on it.

[source:citizen]