Durban - Civil society organisation Black Sash said it was concerned about the payment of social grants for members of the public who use Postbank cards as some had complained that they had experienced delays in receiving their social grants.
The delay comes as a result of the temporary suspension of ATM withdrawals for the Postbank-issued South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) gold cards for December with withdrawals only allowed at retail stores. Postbank said that the suspension was necessary as it had uncovered a series of network attacks by criminal elements determined to commit systematic ATM card fraud-related crimes.
Phindile Ndlanzi, a resident from Ndwedwe, said she did not know what was wrong when she failed to receive her social grant in December.
“I normally go to the ATM to draw my grant. I didn’t have any idea what was going on or why the money was not coming out. I didn’t hear anything about there being a change to how you receive your grant. I went to a store in Durban North and I overheard people saying that if you have a Postbank card, you need to withdraw your grant from a retail store. That’s only when I realised that you needed to withdraw money from retail stores. I did not have money in December for two weeks.”
Iain Robertson, a resident in Verulam, said his neighbours had encountered similar problems.
“They were complaining that they had not received their grants from the first week in December. Some of them went to the Verulam Sassa office to ask if their money was there. It’s sad to see elderly people not knowing that there is a technical issue.”
Rachel Bukasa, the national director of Black Sash, said they were aware of the issues affecting social grant beneficiaries.
“We are in communication with the South African Postbank and Sassa to ensure that any issues are resolved. We as Black Sash cannot understand why this was not planned for properly by Sassa.
“Surely they would have known in advance that the gold cards were going to be suspended at ATMs in December,” said Bukasa.
DA spokesperson of social development Bridget Masango said that scores of people were struggling to get their social grants from Sassa and Postbank this month.
She added that the party had been inundated with calls and emails from desperate grant beneficiaries who could not access their grants.
“While Postbank tried to assure the public that experts and law-enforcement agencies were working towards fixing the network and apprehending the criminals, millions of grant beneficiaries are now only able to access their funds from retailers,” said Masango.
In a statement issued earlier this month (December 6) Postbank said it was necessary to suspend the use of Sassa gold cards as they had been experiencing a number of technical glitches that disrupted the smooth withdrawal of grants.
“It has become necessary that Postbank suspend Sassa grants withdrawal at ATMs for those clients using the Postbank-issued Sassa gold cards,” read the statement.
Postbank added that a dedicated team of professionals, assisted by experienced external experts as well as law-enforcement agencies, had been assigned to deal with this challenge.
“Postbank is aware of the impact that this change in payment channels will have on the social grants beneficiaries, and we apologise for the inconvenience,” the statement read.
The bank said it would notify beneficiaries when ATM transactions via the Sassa gold cards were available again.