Bathabile Dlamini

Bathabile Dlamini’s attempt to avoid perjury charges has failed to gain traction. Image: GCIS/ Flickr

Bathabile Dlamini – Ex-minister’s attempt to dodge perjury trial flops

Former minister Bathabile Dlamini’s application to have her perjury charges dropped has failed in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court.

Bathabile Dlamini

Bathabile Dlamini’s attempt to avoid perjury charges has failed to gain traction. Image: GCIS/ Flickr

Former minister Bathabile Dlamini’s attempt to have the perjury case against her dropped has fallen flat. The Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court has officially dismissed her application to have the case discharged.

The former social development minister applied, through her attorney Tshepiso Mphahlane, in November in an attempt to dodge the charges.

Bathabile Dlamini
Bathabile Dlamini’s attempt to avoid perjury charges has failed to gain traction. Image: GCIS/ Flickr

Bathabile Dlamini claims case against her lacks substance

To clarify, the application claimed that Dlamini should be acquitted of the crime. Furthermore, the application claimed that the state’s evidence was poor and, therefore, couldn’t be relied on.

The case relates to repeated extensions of an unlawful tender awarded to Cash Paymaster Services.

The lucrative tender granted Cash Paymaster Services the power to distribute social grants back in 2017.

Dlamini stands accused of giving false evidence while under oath at an inquiry into the scandal.

Interestingly, the inquiry had been instituted by the Constitutional Court in 2018. The apex court established the inquiry to probe the payments scandal at the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA).

The court had no choice but to extend the illegal contract with Cash Paymaster Services, despite its unlawful nature.

Ex-minister claims she unknowingly gave false evidence

The ex-minister, currently president of the ANC Women’s League, pleaded not guilty to the charges in November. In line with this, Dlamini claimed that if she had given false evidence, she had done so unknowingly.

On the other hand, the State’s case against Dlamini is focused on the ex-minister’s claim that she had no influence on the workstreams at the grant agency.

“Whereas in truth and in fact, the accused well knew that this was not the truth, but that she had in fact directed that the workstreams must report directly to her, and that in fact the said workstreams did report to her as directed and/or she in fact attended meeting/s in relation to operations of the said workstreams whereupon she was briefed and or advised about the work and/or progress of the said workstreams,”

Excerpt from charge sheet