SASSA wants to phase out risky cash payments

The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) plans to phase out all cash payments due to the increasing risk of transporting money.

Raphaahle Ramokgopa, SASSA’s executive manager: strategy and business development, told the portfolio committee on social development in Parliament that with the recent spike in cash-in-transit heists around the country and the high cost of cash payment infrastructure, it will over the next five months implement a cash reduction strategy to do away with cash payments in favour of electronic transactions.

Ramokgopa’s words come as SASSA is working around the clock to ensure that all SASSA beneficiaries will, at the end of the phasing-in phasing-out process, be able to receive their social grants without interruptions.

As part of the phase-in phase-out process, in March, the Constitutional Court granted an order for CPS to continue paying social grants to those who receive their social grants in cash for another six months.

“The guiding principle for the next five months for SASSA is such that, one, CPS will be eliminated fully by September.

“Beneficiaries who stay in areas where there is developed payment infrastructure will be migrated to electronic forms of payments and those that would still like to use biometrics for withdrawals can get into Post Office outlets for verification and payments. But in remote areas, we have developed an alternative strategy to address beneficiaries who are residing in areas where there is no payment infrastructure.

“Our new payment model is premised on SAPO as the dominant player but we also engaged with commercial banks and retailers such as Boxer, Shoprite and all the big retailers in general and they have all agreed that they would like to participate,” she said.

Card swaps

Ramokgopa said the critical driver for SASSA over the next five months is to do card swaps as a matter of urgency.

Briefing Members of Parliament, Ramokgopa said that as of June 4, there were about 10.8 million social grant beneficiaries who receive their grants through the agency’s hybrid model.

Out of these, more than seven million beneficiaries are currently using the old SASSA/Grindrod payment card. Some 1.2 million beneficiaries receive their social grants directly into their own personal bank accounts.

About 2.5 million beneficiaries receive their social grants at pay-points around the country.

After the new SASSA/SAPO card was piloted on May 7, Ramokgopa said the plan was to ensure that the new card is rolled out by the end of July through the card swap drive, whereby the old card is being replaced with the new one.

The two entities aim to produce four million cards in June with a target to swap 2.5 million cards, while it plans to swap 3.7 million cards of the further four million cards that it will produce in July.

In August, the two entities aim to swap about 1.4 million old cards with the new ones.

“Because we have cancelled the cash payment tender, we have decided that our card swap will prioritise primarily those people at cash pay-points because if they have a new card, we will be able to deposit money.”

She said that the alternative plan was to ensure that SAPO, which is currently in the process of procuring mobile ATMs, rolls them out to remote areas by August.

Information: SAnews.gov.za