Cash Paymaster Services (Pty) Limited (in liquidation) and Others v Freedom Under Law NPC and Others

Following earlier Constitutional Court judgments declaring the SASSA–Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) social grants payment contract invalid but suspending invalidity to ensure continuity of grant payments, CPS was required to submit audited profit statements and to cooperate with an independent verification of profits earned from the unlawful contract. An April 2021 Constitutional Court order set out detailed machinery and timelines to enable RAiN Chartered Accountants to complete an updated verification, with oversight by National Treasury. CPS was placed in final liquidation in October 2020, and provisional liquidators were appointed. The provisional liquidators later applied to the Constitutional Court to join SARS and to vary the April 2021 order on the basis that CPS was in liquidation, that final liquidators had not yet been appointed, and that SARS was conducting a tax audit involving similar issues. They sought to defer compliance until final liquidators were appointed and to align the Court-ordered verification process with SARS’ audit.

The application for joinder of SARS and for variation of the Constitutional Court’s order of 1 April 2021 was dismissed.

The judgment clarifies that liquidation does not relieve a company of compliance with existing Constitutional Court orders, and that provisional liquidators are competent and obliged to ensure such compliance. It reaffirms the strict test for joinder based on a direct and substantial legal interest, and underscores the continuing authority and enforceability of constitutional remedial orders made under section 172(1)(b), even in the context of insolvency.