At least 83% grants paid despite glitches in payment system – report

At least 83% of grants have been paid to beneficiaries following an apparent glitch that hit the new payment system, resulting in many grant recipients not accessing their funds.

EWN reports, however, that the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) said the grants that had not been paid were for beneficiaries who delayed withdrawing their funds or had not made an attempt to do so.

The payment system was taken over by the South African Post Office (Sapo) in April, but Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) continued to manage the cash payments, an extension that was granted by the Constitutional Court until September.

Sassa is currently migrating beneficiaries to the new payment system managed by Sapo, a process that must be complete by the end of CPS’ court-granted extension.

The agency said the outstanding grants yet to be paid were not a result of its system failing to do so, with its spokesperson reassuring South Africans that work was still being done to the IT system to ensure payments of grants were managed in the coming month, EWN reports.

Sassa spokesperson Paseka Lesatsi was quoted as saying: “All stakeholders met and basically made sure that [when] we go forward from 1 August, we don’t necessarily experience the problems which we experienced this month.”

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