New payment method for Sassa grants

THE Amanzimtoti Post Office has continued to experience long queues as scores of South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) social grant recipients try to renew the gold cards they use to transact at ATMs and at till points.

The long queues have been made worse by load-shedding, and the post office network going offline, leading to only a handful of beneficiaries being assisted each day. Many of the cards expired at the end of March, and Sassa issued an announcement instructing beneficiaries to report to their nearest post office to have new cards issued to them.

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On April 20, Sassa issued another statement apologising for how the card renewal process has been.
“Sassa intends to increase its capacity to enable faster processing of the requests for change of method of payment and will be extending its office operating hours to accommodate the increase of clients,” read the statement.

It also asked social grant recipients who choose to get their social grants payment through their personal bank account to bring along the following documents to Sassa offices to the Mnini Thusong Centre in Umgababa, a proof of bank account received from the bank, or three months bank statement that depicts the personal details of the beneficiary, as well as proof of identity.

While grant recipients await to have their cards issued, Postbank spokesperson, Dr Bongani Diako, said a new method of paying that does not require a physical card has been issued. Beneficiaries whose cards have expired can receive their grants at Shoprite, Boxer, Usave, Pick n Pay, and OK.

“To use this new method, Sassa beneficiaries just need to bring their identity documents and their Sassa card pin code to any of the participating retailers. At the till point, they will be asked to validate their identity and enter their cellphone number, and then enter their pin to receive their payment. The process is fast, free, and safe,” said Diako.

This new method will be rolled out to retailers for April’s month-end payments that start in the first week of May.

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