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Social Assistance Act, 2004 (Act No. 13 of 2004)

Chapter 4 : Inspectorate for Social Assistance

28. Power of Inspectorate to request information and to subpoena

 

(1) An organ of state must at the request of the Executive Director furnish the Executive Director with the prescribed information relating to an applicant or beneficiary and with any additional information requested, if such information is necessary for an investigation in terms of this Act.

 

(2) A financial institution as defined in section 1 of the Financial Services Board Act, 1990 (Act No. 97 of 1990), must at the request of the Executive Director or an inspector, furnish him or her with the prescribed information relating to the assets and investments of an applicant or beneficiary, and with any additional information requested if such information is necessary for an investigation in terms of this Act.

 

(3) Any person who, in terms of subsection (1) or (2), furnishes information obtained by that person before the commencement of this Act must, when doing so, inform the person about whom such information is furnished of that fact in writing.

 

(4) Any person who applies for a grant in terms of this Act is deemed to have agreed, by making such an application, that any other person who holds personal information relevant to that application may, without requesting permission from him or her, make that information available to the Executive Director.

 

(5) An inspector may for the purposes of performing the functions contemplated in section 27( 1) and (2)(a)—
(a) subpoena a person who can furnish information of material importance concerning a matter under investigation, or who is reasonably assumed to have under his or her control a book, document or thing that may have a bearing on the investigation, to appear before him or her within a reasonable period and to produce that book, document or thing, as the case may be;
(b) administer an oath to that person or cause that person to make an affirmation if that person was or could have been subpoenaed in terms of paragraph (a) and he or she is present at the enquiry;
(c) cross-examine any person referred to in paragraph (b).

 

(6) A subpoena to appear before an inspector must be in the prescribed form and must be served on the person by registered mail or in the same manner in which it would have been served if it had been a subpoena issued by the clerk of a magistrate's court.

 

(7) The rules with regard to privilege which are applicable in the case of a person who has been subpoenaed to give evidence or to produce a book, document or thing before a court of law apply in respect of the examination of a person and the production of a book, document or thing contemplated in subsection (5).