Sassa card switch deadline will not be met

STATE-OWNED bank Postbank has conceded that it would not meet its self-imposed deadline to have millions of South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) migrated to its black card by March 20.

This comes days after Social Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe told MPs that the Postbank did not have plans in place to have Sassa beneficiaries replacing their current gold cards with Postbank’s black cards. Initially beneficiaries were given until February 28 to have their current Sassa cards replaced. The chaotic scenes and panic across the country then forced the deadline to be moved to March 20.

As at 28 February, out of the 3 million cards, only 31% had been issued nationally. In the Western Cape, only 24%  (77 932) cards were issued out of 322 919 beneficiaries. 

This emerged when Postbank’s bank top brass, accompanied by Communication and Digital Technologies Minister Mondli Gungubele briefed the social development portfolio committee in the Western Cape provincial legislature.

Despite the slow start of the switch over, the bank maintained that contingency measures were put in place to ensure continued payment of the grants to the beneficiaries beyond the fast approaching March 20 deadline.

“Our contingency is to allow beneficiaries who have not swapped by 20 March to go to any South African Post Office or withdraw through the cardless process,” said chief operating officer Eurekha Singh.

Singh said they had initially planned to have 236 distribution points nationally and 27 in the Western Cape, but there were only 20 distribution points in the province and two roving teams.The sites will be increased to over 40 soon.

On the problems encountered, she said they received a far lower number of applications when they recruited staff for the sites.

There were network problems with the Home Affairs system to verify the beneficiaries.

However, tellers have been increased at the card replacement sites from two to four and the Spar group has signed up and roving teams also increased to get to the outlying areas. It had been previously confirmed that there was no facility to assist 11 000 beneficiaries in Grabouw. 

 Gungubele said the Sassa gold card was declared defective for the payment system by the South African Reserve Bank, which provided Postbank with limited banking services pending.

“For Postbank to be recognised by SARB as a fully-fledged bank, the only outstanding issue is the black card which can be used anywhere,” Gungubele said.

He stated that the Sassa gold card has to be removed from the banking payment system by the end of the month.

“We are trying to move at a pace where all beneficiaries get the black card by the end of March, which has clearly been impossible. It is clear that the process is going to go beyond the end of March.”

He told MPLs that they were now aiming to swap all the gold for black cards between March and June.

“Those who have not received black cards will have gold cards that are not working after March. An alternative is that between March and June people will still access the institution to get their money using the cardless system,” Gungubele said, also conceding that the card replacement project could have been done better.

Portfolio committee chairperson and DA spokesperson on social development Wendy Kaizer-Philander said: “It is clear that one of the main challenges they face is resourcing, particularly in retaining staff to work at the service points. The situation has been exacerbated by incidents of staff being threatened or robbed in certain areas, which has led to resignations and the closure of some sites.” 

Social Development Minister Jaco Londt, who met Postbank management on Monday, said while they were encouraged by Postbank’s plan to incrementally increase sites across the province, they remained concerned at the pace at which the process has been unfolding.   

“We have asked that Postbank keeps us informed of the active sites and the schedule of its roving teams that will be going to areas where there are no fixed service points,” Londt said.

Cape Times