Sassa maintains that 72 per cent of July’s grants have been received
Social security entity, Sassa, has stated that as of Friday, 6 July, 700 000 of its 12 million beneficiaries had received their new cards.
Despite a vast number of South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) beneficiaries complaining that they have been unable to collect their grants, Sassa insists that as of 6 July, they’ve paid out 72 per cent of the due grants.
A large portion of the problem is the new Sassa gold cards that have been issued by the South African Post Office’s PostBank, which 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 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.
Also Read: Here’s where you can swap your old Sassa card for a new one
The new card started rolling out on 23 June, but the system crashed a little over a week later. However, despite the incessant issues that have been raised since, Sassa maintains that it is working “tirelessly” to “clear the technical glitches which made it difficult for money to be drawn”.
In a media statement issued on Friday, 6 July, Sassa stated that it, in alliance with the South African Post Office (Sapo), have strengthened the capacity of the new system so that it can handle the high volumes in the coming months. It further claimed that, as of 6 July, they had paid out 72 per cent of the grants that were due this month.
“The remaining 28 per cent are mainly people who don’t rush to withdraw their money in the first week of the month,” the statement said. It also stated that the 28 per cent who have yet to receive their grants, “won’t have any problems withdrawing their money.”
Sassa further blamed the issues at the beginning of July on the Sassa strike which, according to them, “had the potential of exacerbating the situation.” Fortunately for the beneficiaries, the strike had no impact on operations, according to Sassa, and the card swapping will go forward as intended.
If you missed our map that included some locations where you can get your new card, here it is once more:
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