Your editorial “A president holds a country to ransom, using its poorest people as pawns” (November 5) was timely and appropriate.

Not too many observers of the shenanigans at the South African Social Security Agency seem to appreciate that the court rulings mean that Cash Paymaster Services and its sub-agents are not entitled to make any profit in the administration of the illegal contract – which is still in place purely to protect the right of the poor to receive their grants.

Despite the revelation of a CPS profit of R1.1 billion, Sassa has apparently taken no steps to recover the profit made. Nor has anything been done, except perhaps by Allan Gray as a CPS shareholder, to determine what has become of the “small margin” of interest earned by Grindrod Bank on the massive amounts that pass through its hands every month.

A “small margin” on a massive amount constitutes millions in taxpayers’ funds over five-and-a-half years.

Letter written by Paul Hoffman published in the Sunday Times 0n 12 November 2017.