Beneficiaries who have missed the cut-off date to replace their gold Sassa cards now have grace until Saturday 31 May to make the move to ensure they receive their grants.
Postbank’s CEO Nikki Mbengashe announced this after the previous extended deadline of Thursday 20 March had come and gone.
According to the provincial Department of Social Development the public has reached out to the department for clarity on the extension as “people simply do not know what to believe anymore”.
This comes after the South African Security Agency (Sassa) announced that the gold version of cards, through which beneficiaries access their social grants, will need to be upgraded to a card from Postbank.
“Through the course of April and May [beneficiaries] can either change to the Postbank black cards or change the payment method at a Sassa office to a bank of their choice.
“Those with gold cards have been asked not to go to a Post Office to withdraw their grants,” explained Jaco Londt, provincial minister of social development.
He urged beneficiaries not to wait to make the switch from the gold cards to the black.
Londt also confirmed he will be meeting with officials from both Sassa and Postbank in hopes to get the two organisations to improve their public communication about the switch. “We urge residents not to wait. Please make the change as soon as possible, to avoid added pressure on the system. We also urge Postbank to step up its processing abilities in order to serve as many elderly as possible.”
