Sassa and Postbank’s payment system failures are deeply problematic, says Black Sash

Sassa beneficiaries cannot be expected to carry the burden of payment system failures, says human rights organisation the Black Sash.

This week government’s social grant system failure left hundreds of thousands of elderly pensioners destitute and without dignity after they could not access their grants.

The ongoing technical issues of the social grant payment system administered by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) and Postbank are deeply problematic as the burden is placed on desperate beneficiaries who are unable pay rent and buy food and medication, Rachel Bukasa, director for Black Sash says.

The system error on Postbank’s payment system prevented thousands of pensioners across the country from accessing their social grants at retailers and banks. It was attributed to ongoing IT improvements needed to maintain the integrity of the payment system.

However, this is nothing new and has been an ongoing issue since November 2022, when Postbank took over the payment of grants from the South African Post Office.  

“From the start, Postbank’s system was not designed to adequately administer the payment of social grants. We worry that there was a failure by the Department of Social Development and Sassa, prior to partnering with Postbank, to do proper due diligence to determine whether Postbank had the capacity, expertise and infrastructure to administer the payment of social grants.”

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Impact of technical issues on Sassa beneficiaries

Bukasa says the Black Sash remains gravely concerned about the impact these technical issues have on beneficiaries across the country. “We can report that many beneficiaries have still not received their grants and resorted to staying over at local payment sites as they simply cannot afford to return once again to retrieve their grant.”

Beneficiaries are frustrated and desperate as they cannot buy necessities such as food or electricity and Bukasa says this is a grave injustice and a breach of the constitutional obligation to deliver grants.

Although Postbank assured beneficiaries that it is working to rectify the current issue and hoped to resolve the issue by Wednesday, the reversals are not reflected in many of the beneficiary bank accounts, which beneficiaries use to withdraw money. 

Added to this, Postbank is concerned that its system could be overwhelmed and therefore it asked beneficiaries to give the system time to settle before trying to withdraw their grants. It remains unclear when beneficiaries will have access to their grants and be able to live and meet their basic needs.

“We want to stress that there is a constitutional obligation to provide social assistance. The failure to deliver social grants is a breach of this obligation and the responsibility lies with the department and Sassa.

“Therefore, these entities must be held accountable. We demand that the department and Sassa, as a matter of priority, outline exactly how it will ensure the integrity of the social grant payment system going forward so that the burden of system failures is no longer placed on beneficiaries,” Bukasa says.