The South Africa Post Office has conceded that it will be difficult for it to meet its deadline if it does not reach an agreement with social security agency SASSA soon.

The two parties have not been able to agree on allowing the Post Office to take over payments of social grants to 17-million beneficiaries.

SCOPA and Parliament’s committee on Social Development have given National Treasury until next Monday to review the process and suggest solutions.Post Office has 98 days before its April the first 2018 deadline.

CEO Mark Barnes says time is running out. “I think what is going happen is if and when we become one which will be next week, but I think if we have got an absolutely clear solution that’s been defined and is uncontested, we can go to the Constitutional Court and say the primary objective has been achieved which is to change the service provider, not only from CPS to someone else but from private sector to a public sector entity. Instead of creating a dependency, we create an asset.”