Cash trucks can be used to deliver social grants if South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) is unable to close a deal with the current service provider, Cash Paymaster Services (CPS).
According to The Times, the Department of Social Development told Parliament's portfolio committee on social development that there were ways to pay grants in the unlikely event that negotiations with CPS do not go according to plan.
Zane Dangor, director-general of the department said he did not think negotiations would go badly. He was reportedly summoned to meet President Jacob Zuma yesterday.
Negotiations with CPS started on Wednesy and will end on Friday, according to the paper.
Dangor reportedly told the committee that 99% of beneficiaries had accounts with CPS' banking partner Gindrod which meant that grants could be deposited.
Regarding people in remote, rural areas, Dangor reportedly said:
"... it's risky but it's been done before and that's to take cash, directly on trucks, and pay people."
Social development minister Bathabile Dlamini cancelled a scheduled press conference yesterday.
According to The Times, ANC MP Pulane Mogotsi said: "The fear (of not being paid) people are having outside, as a member now, I'm having it."