Here’s where you can swap your old Sassa card for a new one
We have put together a list of some of the locations where you can swap your old Sassa card for the new one.
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) unveiled the new cards for its beneficiaries last month, leading to confusion about where exactly they can get the new cards, and what will happen to the old ones.
The new Sassa gold cards have been issued by the South African Post Office (Sapo)’s PostBank, and will replace the Cash Paymaster Services’ (CPS) Sassa cards.
The new card has done away with the familiar white background and colourful foreground, opting instead for a white background with a solely gold foreground, and doing away with the MasterCard logo in the process. The country’s coat of arms, the electronic chip, and Sassa’s logo will all remain in their usual spots on the card.
The new card started rolling out on 23 June, but the system crashed a little over a week later.
Acting Sassa CEO, Abraham Mahlangu, said, according to The Citizen, that he and Sassa were aware of the problem.
“What is being experienced is the result of a process of changing from an old to a new payment system for social grants. Sassa is also phasing out Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) as directed by the Constitutional Court and introducing Sapo to pay social grants,” Mahlangu said.
The new card comes with a few new benefits, such as allowing beneficiaries three free monthly transactions at ATMs, one free monthly transaction at a post office, and unlimited free transactions at merchants with card facilities. The card can be used at all merchants nationwide that are Eurocard, Mastercard, and Visa (EMV) compliant.
There has also been mounting confusion over which card beneficiaries should use, and where they can get the new card.
If you haven’t got the new card yet, you are still safe, but only in the short-term. The old cards will be rendered useless on 30 September, when they will all expire. Sassa is however still asking that beneficiaries swap their old cards for the new ones as soon as possible.
The new cards are available at certain Post Offices, Sassa offices, and Sassa paypoints around the country. Thankfully, Sapo has published, on its website, a list of locations where you can obtain the new cards.
We have managed to compile a map of some of the locations in our area. You can use the following link to see the map:
[uses_iframe src=”https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/embed?mid=1sbvKfPR3Le1eK1BJkPI7MhnVMYtPjTKI” width=”640″ height=”480″]However, this isn’t the full list of locations. If you would like the comprehensive list that Sapo will keep updating, click here.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at northsider@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
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