The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has announced that it is releasing new gold cards to beneficiaries whose cards are expiring in March 2023. The new Sassa/Postbank cards will be available for collection at Post Office branches across the country.
The agency has urged all grant recipients to collect their new gold cards as soon as possible. The cards will only be issued to the person whose name appears on the expiring card. The agency has warned that no one will be able to collect a new gold card on behalf of another person unless they are registered with Sassa as a procurator.
According to the agency, the new gold cards will be available for collection from Monday, 13 March 2023. Recipients are urged to note that only people with expiring gold cards in March 2023 are required to collect new cards at the South African Post Office.
The collection of the new gold cards will be done on specific days for different types of grants. Mondays and Tuesdays will be dedicated to the issuance of cards to Old Age Grant recipients and persons receiving Disability Grants.
Wednesdays to Saturdays will be dedicated to the collection of new gold cards by persons receiving Child Support Grants and persons receiving all other grants.
Post Office branches will operate from 08:00 to 16:00 from Monday to Friday and from 09:00 to 13:00 on Saturdays. The branches will be closed on Sundays. To collect the new gold cards, grant recipients are required to bring their South African Identity Document and the current Sassa/Postbank Gold Card that is expiring in March 2023.
The new cards will be activated with the help of Post Office branch staff members, who will also help beneficiaries choose a new PIN.
Once activated, the new cards will immediately work for withdrawals and other types of transactions. Grant beneficiaries must also visit a nearby Post Office location to pick up their new cards if they lost or misplaced their gold cards, which expire in March 2023.
A new Sassa/Postbank Gold Card will then be issued to the beneficiary by postal workers using fingerprint verification, according to Sassa.
Beneficiaries whose gold cards expire in the coming months shouldn't worry because they would continue to receive grant payments into those cards as long as they are still valid.
“Grants recipients carrying cards that are not expiring during March are discouraged from making attempts to collect new cards at the Post Office during this month.”
Sassa and Postbank have further stated that they will issue a public announcement regarding the dates and processes for the collection of gold cards that expire in later months.
