Genesis partner on high-powered panel to oversee social grants transfer

Genesis partner Anthony Felet is on the high-powered panel appointed by the Constitutional Court that will oversee the process of phasing out Net1's involvement in the distribution of social grants.

Net1's subsidiary, Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) is the current distributor of social grants. Its contract was found invalid by the Constitutional Court but was extended until March 2018, when a new service provider must be in place.

The panel includes former Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus, head of the National Payment System Tim Masela, ANC veteran Mavuso Msimang and IT expert Mmamolatelo Mathekga, according to Business Day.

Deloitte director Angela Bester, partner at Genesis Analytics Anthony Felet, advocate Werner Krull, attorney Dorish Tshepe, banking consultant Heinz Weilert and consultant Brand Taute are also on the panel.

Sassa reportedly said it would "give the panel all the required support to ensure that the process becomes a success and that grant beneficiaries are protected by all means possible".

Felet is a regulatory financial specialist who has worked for competition and economic regulators in the UK, as well as for economics consultancies in both Africa and India. His work focuses on these key areas: the assessment of allegations of excessive pricing, predatory pricing and margin squeeze and the development of price controls for economic regulators and utility companies.

He has worked for the UK Competition Commission (CC) as a financial analyst and was the Deputy Director of Regulatory Finance at the UK Postal Regulator.

Since joining Genesis in 2009, he has conducted two reviews of Eskom's electricity tariff proposals on behalf of the largest industrial firms in South Africa. He has also conducted analyses of the economic profitability of major manufacturing firms that have been subject to excessive-pricing investigations.

Conversely, he has acted on behalf of the Competition Commission in an excessive-pricing case against the incumbent telecoms operator, Telkom. He has also developed wholesale pricing proposals on behalf of large private sector companies throughout Africa and has contributed to the development of tariff frameworks in regulated sectors such as the energy, media and pharmaceutical sectors.

In addition to holding a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s Degree in Commerce (Professional Accounting), he is an accountant and has been a member of CPA Australia for over 15 years.

Sapo’s Sassa admin costs (City Press 26/11/17)

SASSA’s failures make smooth grant handover impossible, warn experts (GroundUp 24/11/2017)

Sapo would charge far more than CPS to pay social grants, court told (Business Day 23/11/2017)

Transition to new grant payments system hopeless, says panel (Business Day 22/11/17)

South Africa Panel Asks Treasury to Probe Welfare Agency (Bloomberg 20/11/2017)