In the ruling, Judge Clive Plasket says the then Sassa Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Virginia Petersen and the applicants, CPS, were wrong saying that the original contract between the parties had to be altered, because it initially only required CPS to register over nine million recipients of social grants, and not the indirect beneficiaries as well. 

Plasket also found that the two parties were incorrect in that CPS was entitled to payment over and above the fixed price. CPS not only lost the appeal, but they are ordered to cover the legal costs of the third respondent in the matter, Corruption Watch.

In early September, CPS represented by Advocate Alfred Cockrell argued the additional function CPS had to perform for Sassa, was not provided for in the agency’s request for proposal (RFP). This additional function is the registration and verification of eleven million indirect Sassa beneficiaries, specifically children, which forms the heart of the contentious matter between the parties. 

The children are referred to as indirect beneficiaries because money is collected on their behalf by a guardian/parent. 

CPS’ version is that the “penny only dropped” after the contract between the parties in question came into effect and it was discovered there were in fact over eleven million indirect beneficiaries that also had to be registered – in addition to more than nine million beneficiaries already registered. 

Cockrell was adamant his client was not going to make a profit unless the entire arrangement was amended.

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