Letter: Having Post Office pay grants may be solution

This was the week that was:

Social grant payouts

The Sassa debacle continues and now Cosatu has called for the resignation or firing of the Minister of Social Development! Let’s wait and see what miraculous escape Social Development and Sassa have in mind.

The only short-term solution seems to be for permission (from Concourt) to be granted for a new six-month or longer contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) since it is the only institution with the equipment, resources and knowledge to be able to pay out the 17 million grants.

Treasury needs to be authorised to negotiate a reasonable deal with CPS with suitable condi- tions to ensure that cost-effective service delivery is achieved.

In the long term, I think the SA Post Office could be mandated, financed and resourced to take over this function and thus rescue the Post Office from its present loss of core business due to other competing communication networks.

Tourism development in the province

Tourism development in the Eastern Cape could bring much-needed income and economic activity into the province from domestic and international visitors. The national budget allocated additional funds for tourism and yet the Eastern Cape provincial budget reduced by 7% the amount allocated for economic affairs, environment and tourism.

Conferences, sporting events, our beaches, game parks and Bayworld all need promoting and, where possible, further development. Where does the province think the economic growth and jobs will come from?

The IDZs are attracting overseas companies, but these mostly need hi-tech or robotic skills!

Shaun Abrahams stays

No surprise that JZ decided not to suspend NPA boss Shaun Abrahams, even though the courts found there was no case to answer for Pravin Gordhan!

So the NPA boss can “trump up” (excuse the pun, but it is quite appropriate as “trump up” means an unsubstantiated accusation) a case against anyone, let alone the minister of finance, just to gain political points.

The closer we get to the 2019 election, the more the NPA (read ANC) will be busy with this pastime!