DA calls for Sassa to use other banks for grant payments

DA has called on the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) to consider using other banks to pay grants after more than 600,000 beneficiaries were left hanging this week. 

This after a technical glitch in Postbank’s social grant payment system, with some elderly beneficiaries still to receive their money.

DA MP Alexandra Abrahams said Postbank’s failure to address the various payments was the latest in a long line of “technical glitches” or “hacking attempts” that affect vulnerable grant beneficiaries on an almost monthly basis. 

Postbank services about 10% of grant beneficiaries

Of the 21 banks used for the payment of social grants, only one bank, a bankrupt State-owned Postbank, failed to pay grants. It services about 10% of the 5.3 million beneficiaries that are paid their social grants via Postbank’s Sassa gold cards monthly.

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“This time, Postbank was unable to pay hundreds of thousands of social grant recipients because of its failure to ensure usage of the software that allows the bank to connect to BankServ Africa servers in order to make payments. 

“Postbank has failed to pay the service provider due to ongoing investigations at the bank and National Treasury’s refusal to approve an agreement that does not comply with public procurement protocols. As a last resort, the bank approached the courts for permission to pay the service provider. Postbank should have had contingencies in place to ensure payment,” said Abrahams. 

Full payment

Social development minister Lindiwe Zulu reassured social grant beneficiaries that all social grant beneficiaries who have not yet received their social grant payments will be paid their money in full.

“We encourage beneficiaries who are still encountering challenges with accessing their grant money and require support to contact the Postbank call centre on 0800 53 54 55 or send a text message to our WhatsApp line on 073 806 1631 or email to PBbalancingSaswitch@postbank.co.za.”

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She said government encountered some attempts to defraud the system by individuals who would have received their funds trying to get a double payment. 

“Our systems are very thorough and therefore people will not be able to defraud the system, instead what they are doing is clogging up the system and thereby delaying the process of dealing with valid reversals. 

“We condemn these attempts and further warn those people to stop this as we will be reporting attempted cases of fraud to law enforcement agencies,” said the minister.