The Parliamentary Committee on Social Development is extremely concerned with the inefficient rollout of the new Postbank cards. They fear that all gold cards won’t be replaced by 20 March 2025.
The committee expressed its concern and disappointment that Postbank missed the weekly deadline given to Sassa and Postbank to report on the progress made in implementing the intervention Postbank reported it developed to address the crisis.
The rollout has been labelled as inefficient, inaccessible and inconvenient. Despite assurances from the Postbank that the rollout of new Postbank black cards will be improved, the committee said there was little progress.
Beneficiaries continue to stand in long queues for unacceptable long hours, from as early as 1 am and sadly some of them are turned back without being assisted.
The Social Development Minister recently visited card issue sites in the Western Cape. At one site, only 13 cards were issued over four hours due to technical challenges.
According to the committee, this demonstrates that Postbank does not have a coherent plan to implement the card replacement process.
Based on the experiences on the ground it is apparent that Postbank will not meet the 20 March 2025 deadline.
The committee took a resolution that Postbank should appear before it on Wednesday, 5 March 2025 to account for the roll-out process.
Millions Affected
The rollout of Postbank black cards commenced in 2024. When the rollout began, grant beneficiaries were assured that no Sassa gold cards would expire until all beneficiaries received a Postbank Black card.
However, in early 2025, the agency confirmed that Sassa gold cards would stop working at the end of February. This sparked concern among beneficiaries with many calling for an extension of the validity of Sassa gold cards. This extension was granted and beneficiaries have until 20 March 2025 to collect a Postbank black card.
This created uncertainty for thousands of social grant beneficiaries who use the soon-to-expire gold cards.
Sassa distributes over 18 million permanent grant payments, including the Older Persons pension grant, Disability grant, War Veterans grant, Care Dependency grant, Foster Child grant, Child Support grant, Child Support grant Top-Up and Grant-in-aid. Many of the beneficiaries of these grants still use a Sassa gold card.
Efforts To Improve Rollout
Last week, the Minister and MECs of Social Development (MINMEC) convened to discuss challenges surrounding the slow rollout of Postbank’s new Black Cards for social grant beneficiaries.
Members expressed dissatisfaction with Postbank’s inefficiency, citing insufficient replacement sites, long queues, lack of facilities, and logistical failures that force beneficiaries to travel long distances without guarantees of being served.
Sassa committed to providing support in the rollout of new black cards, however despite improvements, parliament is concerned that the rollout of Sassa cards won’t be complete by the 20 March deadline.
