Millions of South Africans are completely dependent on social grants for their survival. In 2017, the system that ensures they get the money they so desperately need, came perilously close to utter collapse. Social Development Minister, Bathabile Dlamini was cast as the villain of the piece, and an intransigent one, at that, snubbing Parliament, and maintaining that everything was under control, and the crisis was being exaggerated. Now, with just over two months to go before SASSA has to take full responsibility for the payment of social grants, Lindsay Dentlinger charts the events that almost brought the system crashing down.