The South African Social Security Agency, commonly known as Sassa, provides financial relief to poor and vulnerable South Africans.
These social grants are provided to help improve standards of living in society and are given to people who are vulnerable to poverty and in need of state support, which include older people, people with disabilities, and people with young children.
Sassa makes use of a card payout grant system which makes it possible for beneficiaries to withdraw their grant payments from a South African Post Office (Sapo) or any ATM of the major banks in the country. There are also select supermarkets that allow for the collection of Sassa payments, including Shoprite, Checkers, Pick 'n Pay, Boxer and other outlets.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, ATM bank charges were waivered for Sassa beneficiaries and they were encouraged to opt to receive their grant payments into a bank account that is in their name to avoid having to queue outside of Post Offices. In this way they can simply withdraw the money sent to their account from an ATM.
Sassa also promoted the use of the cashless ATM for Sassa cardholders.
These cashless ATMs are situated at various shops. Here is what beneficiaries were required to do to make a successful cashless withdrawal:
- Insert their Sassa card into the ATM card slot and use their Sassa card pin to begin the transaction.
- Once they have selected an amount to be debited on their Sassa card and the debit is successful they will receive two slips printed out by the cashless ATM confirming the debit. (One slip for the customer and one for the shop merchant)
- They will then hand over one of the slips (merchant slip) to the shop and in exchange the beneficiary will be able to get goods at the shop to the value of the withdrawal.
"The cashless ATM solution has multiple solutions for the society and will contribute in decongesting the current Sassa grants payment points. In light of the government regulations to encourage social distancing to curb the spread of Covid-19, the additional 10 000 ATMs access points for social grant payments within the areas in which the beneficiaries reside is opportune," Deputy Minister of Postal and Digital Communications Techologies, Pinky Kekana commented on the implementation of cashless ATMs for SASSA cardholders.
It is, however, unclear as to whether these cashless ATMs are still being used widely. Thus, the most convenient ways to withdraw Sassa money is either through the use of an ATM, Sapo, or select supermarkets.
For more information about SASSA grants visit their website.
