Acting CEO of South African Social Services Agency (Sassa) Pearl Bengu assured South Africans that the payment of social grants would happen without disruption on April 1.

The contract between the agency and Cash Payment Services (CPS) comes to an end on March 31. Sassa relied on the services of CPS to pay 10.7 million beneficiaries through cash payments, direct deposits and electronic payments.

“As we approach 31 March, we are here to provide the South Africans with the progress and state of readiness. We are pleased to announce a significant state of readiness for Sapo to commence payments of social grants. We assure South Africans that social grants will be paid on 01 April 2018,” Bengu said.

She said Sassa has reactivated its PMG account with the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), which is being used to manage the money for direct transfers for social grant beneficiaries.

Read: Don’t let Sassa blackmail courts

“This means that the money is not paid over a private contractor in advance but remains within the government environment until deposited into a social grant beneficiary account,” Bengu said.

She said since January this year the agency has successfully implemented a pilot project that pays beneficiaries who receive their grants through banks directly. These direct payments have been made to more than 2.3 million beneficiaries for the month of March and the number will increase in April, Bengu said.

For the full article on The Citizen’s website, click on: Social grants to be paid by April 1 as Post Office takes over