Sassa gold cards not expiring in December, Postbank cautions beneficiaries

Postbank has cautioned beneficiaries against fake news that South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) gold cards will cease to work after December.

“This is not true; Sassa gold cards will not expire in December 2023,” it said on Friday.

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Postbank was responding to false rumours dating as far back as October claiming that Sassa gold cards will expire in December, and beneficiaries will not access their social grants from January.

“Guaranteeing that Sassa gold cards will work beyond December 2023 is one of the highlights of Postbank’s commitment to providing convenient and affordable service quality to the disadvantaged,” said the  state-owned commercial bank.

“We assure all Sassa beneficiaries that they will be paid their Sassa grants this December and beyond through their Sassa gold cards.

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“Sassa beneficiaries are urged to rest easy, stay at home and ignore anyone that calls them to any venues under the pretext that the Sassa gold cards have expired and they should change their cards.”

Payment dates for January

• Older persons grant – 3 January 2024
• Disability grant – 4 January 2024 
• Children’s grant –  5 January 2024

Postbank glitch

In September, the departments of communications and digital technologies and social development, Postbank and Sassa apologised to beneficiaries who struggled to withdraw their grants due to a technical glitch.

On 5 and 6 September, Postbank experienced a system glitch at ATMs and retailers, leading to failed withdrawal attempts by some grant recipients for the older persons and disabilities grants.

According to ministers Mondli Gungubele and Lindiwe Zulu, the system challenges were a result of a systems upgrade at the time.

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The system challenges led to the transactions of beneficiaries getting “transaction incomplete errors” because of the system’s communication timeouts. 

The issue was later resolved, with more than four million individuals being paid their social grants money by Postbank through the Sassa gold cards.