We won’t take you for granted: Postbank assures Sassa beneficiaries of payouts

Very few will have forgotten about the disastrous September Sassa payouts.

Nearly 600 000 grant recipients were severely affected when grants went unpaid on September 5 and 6.

On Thursday, September 14, the departments of Communications and Digital Technologies Minister, Mondli Gungubele, and Social Development, Minister Lindiwe Zulu, revealed in a statement that payments to Sassa beneficiaries were delayed due to a technical glitch at Postbank caused by systems upgrades.

On Tuesday, September 19, Postbank assured grant beneficiaries that, according to their records, all outstanding Sassa payments had been fully paid.

Postbank spokesperson Dr Bongani Diako has also said they have encountered attempts by skelms who fraudulently tried to get double payments.

But Diako said their systems are very thorough, “and the individuals making the attempts will not be successful”.

He said: “Instead, what these people are doing is clogging the system and denying people that need genuine assistance from being helped.”

He added that the people attempting to defraud the system will be reported to law enforcement agencies.

Last week, Postbank assured Sassa beneficiaries that social grants will be paid on time in October.

This after meeting with the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the Department of Communications last Thursday to discuss various matters pertaining to the payment debacle.

In a statement issued by the SAHRC, Postbank indicated that it was continuously upgrading or modernising its system.

SAHRC spokesperson Wisani Baloyi said the bank had migrated to a new switching system on August 21.

“This system, despite being tested before going live, experienced problems on the 5th, 6th and 7th of September 2023. The auto-reversal system was then replaced, and the system appeared to be operating without further glitches.

“Postbank further indicated that they had assisted all of their clients who were unable to access their funds during the relevant days, through communication, hotline service and back-office manual processes,” said Baloyi.

But in a new twist to this story, Social Development MEC Sharna Fernandez has accused Zulu of misleading the public about Sassa’s failure to pay social grants on time and has urged the minsiter to tell South Africans “the truth”.

“What the national ministers failed to tell the nation was that Postbank was served notice on the 31st of July that the switching service provider would not deliver services due to non- payment to the tune of nearly R4 million. Postbank then went to court to ensure that services were provided. However, the switching company said to them that they were not prepared to provide the service,” claimed Fernandez.

If this is true, then the “technical glitch” is once again a direct result of poor management. However, the ANC government supports Zulu.

According to the Sassa website, the following increases came into effect on Sunday, October 1.

– Old-age pension grants will increase to R2 090 for recipients between 60 and 74 years old and to R2 110 for recipients over 75 years old. This is a R10 increase.

– Disability Grant will rise to R2 090 – R10 increase

– Child Support Grant goes up to R510 – R10 increase

– Foster Child Grant rises to R1 130 – R10 increase

– Child Care Dependency increases to R2 090 – R10 increase

– War Veterans Grant will go up to R2 110 – R10 increase

– The Grant-In-Aid from Sassa will increase to R510 – R10 increase

– Child Support Grant top–up grant remains unchanged at R250

If all goes as planned, Sassa grants will be paid as follows:

Older Persons/ Pensioners Grant: Tuesday, October 3.

Disability grant: Wednesday, October 4.

All other grants: Thursday, October 5.

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