Postbank Chief Executive Officer Nikki Mbengashe announced on Friday that South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) beneficiaries have been granted a critical extension to switch from SASSA gold cards to Postbank black cards until May 31, 2025.
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GRANT beneficiaries have been given another temporary reprieve, as the deadline to replace South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) gold cards has been extended by two months, until May 31.
Since the announcement of the transition deadline, beneficiaries have been frantic in trying to make the switch. Postbank and Sassa have been accused of failing to ensure a smooth transition, forcing beneficiaries to endure long queues, network glitches and being turned away without completing their card replacements, and uncertainty about how they will receive their grants going forward.
Postbank started replacing Sassa Gold Cards with the new Postbank Black Cards in September 2024, with the initial deadline of February 28. This was then moved to March 20 despite over a million beneficiaries still outstanding.
“Postbank is pleased to announce that, following consideration and the determinations made by the regulators, grant beneficiaries that are yet to switch to black cards will continue to use SASSA gold cards to access their social grant payments for a further period of two months, that includes April and May 2025.
“This means that beneficiaries that have not yet replaced their SASSA gold cards with the new Postbank Black cards can still use their SASSA gold card to access their grants only for the months of April 2025 and May 2025. As a result of the extension, gold cards will continue to work across all payment systems such as the ATM’s, POS machines for cash withdrawal at our partner retail stores and swiping for purchases. Meaning that due to the extension, the gold cards will continue to work as they do now,” said Postbank.
Following the extension of the continued usage of the cards, beneficiaries with gold cards were advised not to the use over-the-counter cash payments option inside Post Office branches as previously announced by Postbank and SASSA.
“SASSA gold cards will be decommissioned after this two months extended period and any grant beneficiary that does not have a black card by end of this period in May 2025, will not be able to access their grant through any channel except through their black card. Their grant money will remain in their account, and it will only be accessible (with) a black card.”
According to Postbank, replacement of SASSA gold cards was still underway with more card replacement sites than there were a few weeks ago.
Social Development MEC Jaco Londt said many members of the public had expressed confusion about the announcement given issues with the process to date.
“We urge residents not to wait. Please make the change as soon as possible, to avoid added pressure on the system. We also urge Postbank to step up its communication, and this is something we will continuously tell the management as well.
“This week I visited several community outreaches Postbank conducted in the Overberg region of the Western Cape. I saw very few people at some sites, because the broader community was not aware of the outreaches. The roving teams were even doing home visits to assist some beneficiaries to make the card switch. People are not aware of these outreaches because the communication has been subpar. We have been sharing information that has been made available to us from Postbank on social media, but we require more information earlier,” said Londt.
He said they would be meeting with SASSA and Postbank next week.
Cape Times