I am sure you have been inundated with calls about the Sassa pay-out since 1 August.
I know that people phoned radio stations about the short-payments. When people voiced their concerns on Sassa’s Facebook page, they were told to report short-payments to their Sassa office. They pretend not to know, and are too cowardly to own up, about the short-payments! I am sure that we were all short-paid because they took the money to finance the issue of the new cards!
When I went to withdraw my grant on 2 August, it was declined twice at various stores.
It’s quite clear that Sassa is not ready for the card swap. Firstly, you contact them on their Facebook page and ask for the list of selected Post Offices, but then they reply, “Go to the list of selected post offices on the Post Office’s website”.
So I went to the list, phoned six of the “selected” post offices from the Krugersdorp area down to Muldersdrift, but none of these Post Offices received the (special) laptop which they need from Sassa! The main Post Office told me they will only swap cards on 15 August – and no other Post Office!
But these dates and places are not published. Just like the past weekend, when Sassa was open in certain areas, but no announcement to that effect was made!
Also, nobody seems to know exactly how bank charges are going to affect draws. We were told that Sassa would negotiate with banks, but this has not been done!
I specifically asked the main Post Office whether there will be chairs for the elderly and those who walk with crutches and cannot stand for hours on the 15th as there will be thousands of people on that day! They replied that they are not even sure they will be paid their salaries from month to month and there will be no chairs!
I doubt whether the Sassa workers were trained for this mammoth task! It is time they appoint people who know what they are doing!
