Postbank claims Sassa grants can now be collected after system glitches

Postbank on Sunday said South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) recipients are now able to collect their social grants at ATMs and retailers after its system glitches were resolved.

Postbank system glitches

The glitches affected Sassa beneficiaries that use gold cards. Beneficiaries were unable to withdraw their grants at post offices, as well as shops that provide the cashback functionality, including Shoprite, Checkers, Pick n Pay, Usave and Boxer.

The system glitches meant Postbank customers could not make over-the-counter payments, deposits and withdrawals.

“The payments system challenges have been resolved from Saturday afternoon (5 November 2022), and we have since been recording stability with successful transactions over the ATM and retailers,” said Postbank spokesperson Bongani Diako.

Grant payments at post offices

He said Postbank will monitor the Sassa payments on Monday, to ensure there are no issues with collecting grants at post offices.

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Diako added that most of the more than seven million Sassa beneficiaries that use Postbank’s gold cards withdraw their social grants from ATMs and retails shops.

“Postbank apologises to our Sassa social grant beneficiaries for the inconvenience caused due to these system challenges,” said Diako.

“We know that social grants are important to the livelihood of the most vulnerable in our community and we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience experienced during the system glitch.”

SRD grant technical glitch

In June, Postbank also blamed a technical glitch for Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant recipients not being able to withdraw their R350.

The state-owned bank said a technical outage prevented millions of beneficiaries from accessing their money.

SRD grant extended

During his Medium Term Budget Policy Statement in October, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said the SRD grant will be extended again.

“The SRD grant was introduced in May 2020 as a temporary measure to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable, who were affected by [Covd-19] lockdown measures. It has been extended several times since then. Discussions on the future of the grant are ongoing and involve very difficult trade-offs and financing decisions,” he said.

It is expected to be extended to the end of March 2024.

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