The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) gold card grants beneficiaries who were not able to migrate to the Postbank black card, have been urged to use the available Postbank cardless services while waiting to transition to the new cards.
This appeal was made by the Portfolio Committee on Social Development, as 20th March was the deadline for the gold cards stop working,
The committee Chairperson, Bridget Masango, said Postbank will continue to issue the black cards, until 20 June 2025.
“SASSA will continue to pay monies to beneficiaries’ accounts. Beneficiaries can access their grants using the Post Office withdrawal process, and through the retailers cardless cash withdrawals payment method, for beneficiaries who are registered for it. The Committee is looking forward to the achievement of the primary objectives of switching from the old SASSA gold cards to the new Postbank black cards, which is to modernize and tightening the grant payment system, enhancing security and reliability for beneficiaries and ensuring compliance with the updated banking standards,” said Masango.
Meanwhile, the agency said it’ll ensure that the migration process also reaches the most vulnerable people in the society, the elderly, bedridden, people living with disabilities amongst others.
“Working with Postbank, we have come up with plans to ensure that we do home visits to effectively assist those who cannot reach various card replacement sites. We will continue to intensify this process even beyond the 20th of March if they have not migrated by then. Our outreach programmes will also continue beyond the 20th of March as we want to ensure that we assist as many people as possible to ensure that they are not inconvenienced in the April pay run and beyond,” said SASSA acting CEO, Thema Matlou.
