The deadline to replace the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) gold card for the black one has once again been extended, to Saturday 31 May.
This comes after the 20 March deadline for the replacement of cards came and went, with thousands of grant beneficiaries still having to migrate to Postbank Black cards.
On the West Coast residents have shared their concerns about the deadline as many have still not received their new gold cards. According to one resident, from Vredenburg, she made her way to the Shoprite Vredenburg point many times, but still hasn’t been helped due to long queues and the influx of people making their way to the only available point on the West Coast. To help ease the number of people on the West Coast, SPAR Langebaan and SPAR Saldanha also made their stores available so local grant beneficiaries can receive their new cards.
Charmaine Laubscher, Deputy Mayor of Saldanha Bay Municipality, said three points are not merely enough.
“I wish Hopefield, St Helena Bay and Paternoster SPAR would also join. Especially now with the period extension it will help a lot. Our Sassa people are the most vulnerable people in our towns, and that is why I fought so hard at the beginning, even with the minister, when he suggested that they should have money paid into their bank account. I argued that they already get so little money, and cannot pay bank charges as well.”
Wayne Solomons from White City said the extra transition points would make a difference and save people travelling costs. “People on a Sassa grant have to borrow money for travelling to get their grant, creating a deficit for their household.
It appears Sassa has also learnt from its own mistakes because nothing was in place at first. The system is only starting to fall into place to assist our people to make the switchover.”
Jaco Londt, Western Cape MEC for Social Development, said in the course of April and May they can either change to the Postbank black card or change their 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.
“We urge residents not to wait. Please make the change as soon as possible to avoid added pressure on the system,” Londt said. “We also urge Postbank to step-up its communication, something we will continually tell the management as well.
“The announcement has not been shared widely or effectively, hence people contacting us for clarity. Next week we will meet with Sassa and Postbank, where we will once again try to pressure them into stepping-up their game. We know there are staff on the ground working extremely hard to help vulnerable residents. But we also know there are a myriad problems that could have been avoided had proper planning gone into this process.”
He added that they remain committed to assisting however they can, “but we are getting frustrated with the flipflopping by national entities that are mandated to serve the most vulnerable. We urge them to do better and step up their game.”
