(1)Why (a) was a request to host five events in KwaZulu-Natal for beneficiary education and beneficiary awareness campaigns on the new payment system and foster care mop-up project on 12 and 23 December 2017 approved within a day on 5 December 2017, (b) did beneficiary education and beneficiary awareness campaigns on the new payment system take place when a new payment system for the payment of social grants had not yet been finalised, (c) did all five events take place in KwaZulu-Natal and (d) was a total amount of R20 million approved for hosting the five events without an itemised breakdown of costs; (2)	what are the relevant details of (a) each service provider that provided services for each event, (b) the detailed breakdown of all costs incurred for each event, (c) the number of beneficiaries that attended each event and (d) each (i) national and (ii) provincial representative from her department who attended each event?
(1)(a) Submissions and other documents routed for CEO’s signature are attended based on her availability in office. The mentioned submission was signed on 5 December 2017 because ACEO was in office on that day.
The campaigns are used as a platform to educate people on different types of grants e.g. Grant in aid; various SASSA projects e.g. Regulation 26A, Foster care backlog mop-up project. With regards to Reg 26A: SASSA has insourced the services to do direct funeral cover deductions on qualifying grants thus communication with beneficiaries was critical in order to allow beneficiaries opportunity to update their information, and to be within the legislation requirement of one policy per person and the policy not to be more that 10% of the grant amount.
The beneficiary and stakeholder engagement was critical due to the need to provide clarity on the SASSA card that was to expire December 2017 and to inform beneficiaries that it has been extended to December 2018.
(d) At head office level regions are allocated amounts to spend per event and the breakdown of cost is done at the regional level as they do their procurement process.
(d) SASSA does not keep a record of official who attend the events. Officials attending events include representatives from Head Office, Provincial Offices as well as District and Local Offices.