Around five million beneficiaries who receive social grants from the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) will have Sassa cards which will expire within the next few months.
The Agency has advised these beneficiaries to renew their Sassa gold cards, use their personal bank accounts or use Shoprite's free Money Market Account.
The Shoprite General Manager of Financial Services, Jean Oliver has urged beneficiaries to renew their cards as soon as possible or to visit retail stores such as Shoprite, Checkers or USave to apply for a Money Market Account.
They will receive their grant payments into this account and once the grant has been paid into their account they will receive an SMS notification.
Beneficiaries who have Shoprite Money Market Accounts will be able to use their XtraSavings card to withdraw their Sassa grant at any one of these retail stores.
They will also be able to use their cellphones to use their grant to buy airtime and data.
Oliver said that beneficiaries will have complete control over their accounts.
The Shoprite Group has been disbursing grants such as the Old Age Pension grant, Child Support grants and the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant for many years and they believe the next step would be for Sassa beneficiaries to receive their grant payments through their Money Market Accounts.
Shoprite is attempting to get more than 18 000 beneficiaries to switch from their Sassa gold cards to Shoprite Money Market Accounts.This comes after the South African Post Office (SAPO) which distributes grants to beneficiaries, faces possible liquidation.
Recently Sassa grant beneficiaries were met with long queues at the Post Office when they tried to renew their cards. Post Offices have also been impacted by load shedding with its system going offline in some areas.
Sassa said:
We had to intervene to make sure that queues move smoothly, people are helped, especially the elderly, and in this instance, Sassa has tried to make sure that its employees or the staff are available, including during weekends,
Sassa has announced that the Post Office will be operating for longer hours to help those with the renewing of their Sassa cards.
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