Cape Town - The Black Sash said it is engaging lack Sash says it is engaging the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) and Postbank on ongoing challenges which recently saw millions of social grant beneficiaries unable to access their monies.
Black Sash national director Rachel Bukasa said: “We are well aware of the problems that are being experienced on the ground and we are disappointed to see this happening.
“However, we have been engaging with Postbank, Sassa and the other parties who are aware of the problem and we are currently dealing with that.
“As soon as we have more updates we will provide that, but it is heartbreaking for the beneficiaries.”
Last week, Sassa issued a warning to social grants recipients using its gold cards to collect their monies at retailers and ATMs as over-the-counter withdrawals at Post Office outlets were affected by system glitches.
This as the beneficiaries who queued for hours at the Post Office branches were forced to join the long queues at retailers such as Pick n Pay, Boxer and Shoprite.
One of the beneficiaries, Nobuzwe Maliwe, who collects her social grant at the Khayelitsha post office, lashed out at the agency for the inconvenience.
“I have been checking my balance on my card since Thursday but the money hasn’t been paid.
“This is such an unfair inconvenience considering that we are preparing to buy Christmas clothes for our kids, not to mention other necessities like food,” she said.
Sassa and Postbank have since apologised for this and on Monday said the glitches were resolved, confirming that the majority of the more than seven million social grant beneficiaries using Postbank can withdraw their grants via ATMs and retailers.
It said it would monitor the system performance within Post Office branches.
Sassa grant operations manager Brenton van Vrede said the agency and the bank had been working around the clock in trying to resolve many of the issues so that the payment services were restored.
“We have managed to pay the vast majority of social grants up to now, but there are still a few that are outstanding and we hope to resolve that as quickly as possible over the course of the next couple of days,” he said.
Postbank interim chief executive Lucas Ndala said some branches were still experiencing challenges and that they were continuing to resolve these.
Sassa chief executive Abraham Mahlangu said the agency would continue to diversify payment channels as much as possible to reduce the reliance on one particular access point.