How the Post Office bungled social grant payments
With the Post Office unable to dispense social grants, the big retailers are helping, but it is dangerous and Sassa is feckless
It’s not just letter writers who are abandoning the SA Post Office. Just months after it announced its advanced state of readiness to commence payments on behalf of the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa), hundreds of thousands of social grant recipients have also decided to give it a wide berth. For recipients, many of whom had travelled hours to get to the closest post office, the late arrival of cash — or running out of cash — in August and September was enough to destroy whatever initial faith they might have had in the Post Office’s ability to function effectively. The disappointing, but hardly surprising, performance of the Post Office means the three major retail groups — Shoprite, Pick n Pay and Spar — may have to play an even greater role in the monthly distribution of just over R6bn in social grants to 10.9-million people in the months and years ahead. This may lead to the next big Sassa crisis. Despite the benefits of millions of social grant recipients coming into their st...
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