Net1 UEPS is often depicted — even, on occasion, unfairly — as the unacceptable face of modern SA capitalism. But CEO Serge Belamant makes a profound point when asked what is motivating the baffling ineptitude of social development minister Bathabile Dlamini.
It is this ineptitude — doing zip to appoint any other company to distribute grants to 17m people every month, despite a constitutional court order in 2014 ordering it to do just this — that has led many to ask why Dlamini so desperately wants Net1’s subsidiary, Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), to keep the contract. Why? Unless money has changed hands, they say.
Belamant argues that South Africans are quick to assume someone has been paid off when the reason for their behaviour is often rather more mundane.
Net1 CEO says his company has never paid any money to any politician — least of all Bathabile Dlamini
“There is something else that is more powerful than corruption: stupidity. You should never look for something that might not be there; first look at whether someone is making a decision because they don’t know what they’re doing,” he says.
It’s a profoundly important point that the conspiracy theorists often forget. The logical fallacy goes along these lines: of course someone has been paid off; why else would they do something so unfathomable?
Well, as Belamant points out, the real answer is often that there’s simply just a surplus of room-temperature IQs around the table.
Of course, when it comes to the social-grant debacle, you can understand why this thinking has gained currency. For a start, Dlamini’s behaviour has been inexplicable: she has railroaded her own department including her director-general Zane Dangor and set up a parallel “workstream” to lobby for CPS’s retention.
Secondly, the stench of kickbacks has followed Net1 for years. In 2008, advocate Norman Arendse (at the time chairing the committee adjudicating the grant tender) said he’d been approached by sports administrator Gideon Sam with the offer of an “open chequebook” to swing the grant tender to CPS. The tender was then rerun and awarded to CPS anyway. But even then, the constitutional court ruled in 2014 that the decision to award it to Net1 was “invalid”.
So as much as Belamant’s point is well-made, it’s not as if the sceptics are accusing Desmond Tutu of bribery. So, the question remains: have Dlamini or the organisation she heads, the ANC Women’s League, ever got any money from Belamant or Net1?
“We’ve never paid the minister a bloody thing, not directly or indirectly,” says Belamant.
And the party? “No, no, no. We don’t do political parties on principle. We do not sponsor or pay for any government or party official,” he says.
So how does Belamant then explain Dlamini bending over backwards for CPS?
“Bending over backwards?” he asks, incredulous. “Not at all. Dlamini has entered into legal battles with us and even laid criminal charges against us. If that is batting for us, thank God she’s not batting against us.”
Just perhaps, he argues, Dlamini truly believes that CPS are “the only ones who can do the job”.
If so, it’s not exactly a unanimous opinion. Dangor, senior officials within the SA Social Services Agency and others say there were plenty of options — Dlamini just shot them all down.
Belamant has never been known to lack confidence. Born in France, and having arrived in SA decades ago, the 63-year-old technology executive is more Fikile Mbalula than Cyril Ramaphosa.
So it’s not exactly surprising when he says that rather than seeking to boot out CPS, “they should put us on a pedestal and make a statue to us”.
Belamant says there have been no hiccups: everyone got their grants, paid out reliably every month.
“The best thing they could do is make sure we keep doing this for the rest of our natural lives, because then at least they know it will happen,” he says.
Fortunately, it seems inevitable that all 17m people will be paid their social grants after April. But it’s troubling that a company which scored an “invalid” tender will continue profiting from it, after the deal expires.
Belamant might play it down, but Net1 still makes good money from the tender. These profits come not just from the R17.50 per beneficiary per month it will be paid over the next two years, but also from the odious “ancillary services” it sells to grant recipients — including microloans, airtime and funeral policies, all attracting a fee that swells Net1’s bottom line.
So Belamant might believe government should build a statue to thank him, but equally, he should consider building one to thank Dlamini.
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