DA will keep a close eye on new SASSA grant payment method

25 April 2023

The DA cautiously welcomes Postbank’s new payment system to assist South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) grant beneficiaries who have been struggling to renew their SASSA cards and access their funds.

Postbank’s new system that will allow grant recipients to withdraw funds at participating retailers with their identity documents, cellphones and SASSA card pin numbers, comes after sustained pressure from the DA and civil society to address the crisis and a nationwide outcry.

The DA will be monitoring the payment of grants through this system closely. Every month we are inundated with complaints and pleas from desperate grant beneficiaries that are unable to access their grants due to one or the other failure from SASSA and the South African Post Office (SAPO)/Postbank as its implementing agent. We will submit parliamentary questions to determine the procedures and processes SASSA and Postbank put in place to ensure that beneficiaries can successfully access their grants through the new payment system, as well as the measures taken to safeguard it against fraud and corruption.

It is high time that SASSA fulfilled its mandate and ensured the smooth payment of social grants. The perpetual rise in the cost of living has dire consequences for the poorest and most vulnerable in our country. They cannot continue to pay the price for SASSA and Postbank’s ineptitude.

Given SAPO’s liquidation, it is time for SASSA to put plans and processes in place to insource the payment of social grants. Social grant recipients deserve better than this poor excuse of an Agency that continually fails them.

Issued by Bridget Masango, DA Shadow Minister of Social Development, 25 April 2023