Cape Town - The Western Cape Department of Social Development Head Sharna Fernandez has lashed out at Minister Lindiwe Zulu, for allegedly not responding to her calls to address ongoing problems related to the issuing of SASSA grants.
In a statement, Fernandez said that on December 15, 2022, she wrote to the National Minister of Social Development after receiving numerous complaints of Postbank-issued SASSA gold cards not working.
She said upon inquiring with Postbank, she had discovered that Postbank had suspended ATM withdrawals for December while it dealt with technical issues that were the result of criminals attacking its network.
She said: “I had called on Minister Zulu to urgently intervene to find a solution to the problem as our most vulnerable citizens were suffering. It has now been a month, and not only have I not received any feedback from the Minister or her office but there are problems plaguing SASSA beneficiaries.”
Fernandez also revealed that this month (January 2023), she had again been informed of apparent system challenges experienced by Postbank, which seemingly led to many beneficiaries being unable to access their January SASSA grants.
She said that her office had been inundated with reports and complaints about beneficiaries experiencing difficulties accessing their monthly grants.
She said while Postbank said it had fixed its system glitches, for South Africans dependent on SASSA grants to put food on their tables and keep the lights on any type of delay was unacceptable.
“Without any word or sign of urgency from our national government. There are over 1,6 million SASSA beneficiaries in the Western Cape and millions more across South Africa.
“When will our government take these concerns seriously? It wants to corporatise Postbank, but month after month we see this entity imploding when it has to disburse grants, affecting the most vulnerable in our society."
Fernandez said she would continue applying pressure on her national counterpart to address the problems facing SASSA grant recipients.