Postbank extends deadline for new grant cards

State-owned Postbank said it was unable to convert all SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) grant cards to ones issued by the state-owned entity by March 20 and now plans to have issued all such cards by no later than June 30. 

Social development minister Sisisi Tolashe last month lashed out at Postbank for the crisis facing social grant beneficiaries who are required to swap their Sassa grant gold cards for Postbank black cards by the March deadline.

Tolashe told parliament’s social development committee that the already extended deadline, from February 28, had not been informed by any facts, adding there was a crisis. 

After the deadline, social grant beneficiaries — there are about 28-million in SA — will not be able to use their Sassa cards to receive their money or access their payments.

Postbank CEO Nikki Mbengashe told the social development committee on Wednesday that the number of cards issued by February 28 was 880,000, an average daily rate of 26,648. 

To convert all outstanding cards “will require that we ramp up our card replacement daily run rate ... to at least 100,000/day,” Mbengashe said.

“Realistically this may not be achievable [by] March 20. However, there are other interventions that will solve both the congestion challenge and the residual base that may no be able to convert before March 20.” 

Options include using data from the SA Post Office and the National Youth Development Agency, she said, adding there were about 7,000 candidates “we are tapping into”. 

The Postbank will also execute on the Spar Group contract, “which instantly makes available over 200 stores and 400 tellers”. The bank also plans to issue “press releases” giving beneficiaries confidence their towns will be covered, and to expand the offering of cardless cash withdrawal (CCW) to beneficiaries that are in queues. 

“We plan to have issued all Postbank black cards by no later than 30 June 2025,” Mbengashe said. 

“Beneficiaries without a card would have been registered for CCW as part of the queue management intervention. CCW is an existing offering, currently offered to SRD [social relief of distress] customers as they do not have cards currently.

“All one needs is an ID and registered cellphone to withdraw at all our partner retailers (Pick n Pay, Spar, Checkers, Usave and Boxer). This solution [is] to be treated as the ultimate temporary until June 30, when everyone would have received their card,” she said. 

There are more than 500 Post Office branches nationally that could be used to withdraw cash. Mbengashe said that between March 21 and June 30, “beneficiaries will be encouraged to get a black card before they can access their next pay run in April 2025. Sites will continue to be fully operational after March 31. After June 2025, all alternatives will be stopped — everyone should have a black card by then”. 

Committee chair Bridget Masango, who has previously said the March 20 deadline was a “joke”, said some beneficiaries could not access their monies when trying to use the black cards. “There are three error messages: your PIN is wrong, no funds, or they get their grant but not all of it,” she said. 

Mbengashe said: “We don’t have any IT glitches. We do notice sometimes that our beneficiaries reset their PINs and then forget as soon as they reset them. Our cards are working. The black card is working. The challenge with the PIN is that people forget the PIN as soon as they change it. It’s normal because it’s a new card.”

mkentanel@businesslive.co.za