The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) seems to be no stranger to glitches and system issues. On Thursday afternoon, Sassa released a statement urging beneficiaries to collect their money at alternative points.
Beneficiaries are now being urged to head to their nearest retailer or ATM to collect their Sassa money " due to systems glitches at Post Office outlets today". This only applied to Sassa gold cardholders as R350 grants can no longer be collected at Post Offices.
... over the counter withdrawals at Post Office outlets are affected by systems glitches.
Sassa beneficiaries are not the only ones affected as these glitches will also affect Postbank customers wishing to make deposits and withdrawals over the counter.
Retailers which are available include any retail outlets nationwide that provides the cashback functionality which includes Shoprite, Checkers, Usave, Pick n Pay and Boxer.
Gold cards can also be used at places which take bank cards due to the gold card being able to work within the national payments system similarly to any other bank card.
Postbank's Interim CEO, Lucas Ndala, said:
We apologise to our SASSA social grants beneficiaries and Postbank customers for the inconvenience caused as we take every service interruptions seriously.
He continued to say, "Our IT teams have been tasked to resolve the technical challenges affecting the over the counter branch transactions as a matter of urgency."
Sassa has said that once the issue is resolved, Postbank will issue a notification.
Here’s The Grant Payment Schedule For November 2022:
- Older Persons Grant - Wednesday 2 November
- Disability Grant - Thursday 3 November
- Children's Grants - Friday 4 November
It's important to note that the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant is not a permanent grant and therefore does not follow this payment schedule. SRD grants can be collected at retail merchants daily. These retail merchants include Checkers, Pick N Pay, Shoprite and Boxer Stores.
Sassa's Acting CEO, Abraham Mahlangu, has said that they will continue to diversify the channels available as much as possible "to reduce the reliance on any one particular access point as we continue to pay the right social grant, to the right person, at the right time and place".
