Sassa plans to phase out cash payments
"The end goal of Sassa is that in the long term, we want to do away with the cash payment component because it is not safe."
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) plans to phase out cash payments because of the spate of cash-in-transit heists among other reasons.
The organisation said it wanted to do away with cash payments in favour of electronic transactions in the next five months.
Sassa manager Raphaahle Ramokgopa told a social development committee the decision was made because of the recent spike in cash-in-transit heists around the country, as well as the high cost of maintaining a cash payment infrastructure.
The South African Post Office was chosen as the financial institution that would effect payments to millions of Sassa beneficiaries.
“In the long term, we want to do away with the cash payment component because it is not safe,” Ramokgopa said.
“If you look at the [cash-in-transit] heists that are happening recently, you can see that it is not something that we can sustain over the long term.”
She said Sassa was “working around the clock” to ensure that all its beneficiaries would, at the end of the switch-over process, be able to receive their social grants without any interruptions.
As part of the switchover, the constitutional court granted an order in March for Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) to continue paying out social grants in cash for another six months.
“The guiding principle for the next five months for Sassa is such that CPS would be eliminated fully by September 2018, having reduced cash payments,” Ramokgopa said.
Beneficiaries who live in areas where there is developed payment infrastructure will be migrated to electronic forms of payments.
Beneficiaries who would still like to use biometrics for withdrawals can go to post office outlets for verification and payments.
Sassa has developed an alternative strategy for beneficiaries who live in remote areas where there is no payment infrastructure.
“We also engaged with the commercial banks and retailers such as Boxer, Shoprite and all the big retailers in general and they have all agreed that they would like to participate and we are in engagements with them to sign agreements so that they can provide the services.”
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https://www.citizen.co.za/rekord/166690/sassa-bank-charges-infuriate-east-pensioner/
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