At the beginning of every new month, more than 18 million grant beneficiaries line up at paypoints around South Africa to access critical financial relief. However, many grant beneficiaries have faced challenges in recent months as they tried to access the grant provided by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa)
In November 2022, Sassa grant beneficiaries were advised to collect their grants at retail outlets, as the Postbank encountered external security challenges and technical glitches. The Postbank took the decision to suspend ATM withdrawals on Sassa gold cards in December, leaving some many grant recipients frustrated.
Elizabeth Raiters from #PayTheGrants says when grant beneficiaries attempted to collect their money at retail outlets, they were informed that their grant money was already withdrawn.
Grant beneficiaries were then instructed to fill out forms to get their money. While some beneficiaries received their grants, others did not. This left many vulnerable individuals without financial support over the last few months.
Raiters explained, “Sassa said that there was some Cyber attack on Postbank and that is the reason why they [Grant Beneficiaries] never got their money. Some beneficiaries did receive the money but some up until today haven't received a cent.”
Postbank spokesperson Bongani Diako says the entity has made significant progress since November 2022 in dealing with the payment challenges. However, they acknowledged these challenges have not been fully eradicated.
Diako said, “Postbank does acknowledge however that on Friday 6 January between 9AM and 12AM, we did have intermittent system challenges that did affect the payment of the grants in that period, however, we have been up and the system has been performing at the industry level since Friday.”
The Postbank also called on grant recipients to ignore rumours circulating that says the Sassa gold card will be changed. Diako says the Sassa gold card is still in operation and remains a means of transacting for grant beneficiaries.
The next grant payments are scheduled to be paid from 3 February 2023.
