Social grant beneficiaries given more time to change their Sassa gold cards

The Sassa gold cards have been deactivated and were deemed no longer functional as of March 20.

Social grant beneficiaries are, however, still allowed to replace their cards with the new Postbank black ones. This comes after the fact that not everyone have switched to the new cards after facing some challenges.

The deadline was initially moved from February 28 to March 20. On the day of the deadline, another extension was announced.

Some of the beneficiaries cited challenges, such as standing in long queues in adverse weather conditions for long hours, the lack of ablution facilities, insufficient replacement sites and the lack of information, as some of the reasons why they have not been able to get their new cards.

Now that it has been extended again, the gold cardholders say the process could have been made easier if they had enough grocery and retail shops issuing the new cards. They also complained of the lack of information regarding the roll-out, with some finding out through social media and word of mouth.

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On Tuesday, Lowvelder Express interviewed some beneficiaries who were queuing outside the Shoprite in Bester Street.

One of the people, a KaNyamazane resident, Prudence Chiloane, said they could not replace their cards in their residential area and had to travel to Mbombela to do it.

“I saw through Facebook that the community members in KaNyamazane were directed to the community hall, because there were too many people. I then resorted to coming here, because it is the only Shoprite in town that is issuing out cards.

“This is the third time that I am coming back here. It’s disheartening, because I spend money to travel to town. When I came here last week Thursday, the line was extremely long, I was number 220. At around 12:00, they told us their system was offline and we had to wait. At 15:00 I went back home because I had waited for too long,” she said.

Another beneficiary from Pienaar, Sihle Maluka, said they also do not have a replacement centres in their area.

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“What is infuriating is that we are too many people and very little replacement centres, and the lack of information. We found out through Facebook, but some elderly people were clueless,” Maluka said.

Sassa Mpumalanga is in the process of alleviating the challenge of the lack of information. On Monday, Sassa officials visited Bushbuckridge Mall to encourage community members to replace the Sassa gold cards.

Despite the number of people who have not converted their cards yet, there are community members who testified that they experienced no issues.

Two elderly women, Nomathemba Matsebula and Gracious Sikhakhane both said they changed their cards with no hassle.

“We changed ours in January with no problem. We went early in the morning and within a few hours, we were done,” Matsebula said.

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies reassured all social grant beneficiaries that the replacement of cards is ongoing and that they will receive their grants with no disruption.

“Beneficiaries who have not yet collected their Postbank black cards can still access their grants at any post office branch using their ID. Once beneficiaries collect their Postbank black card, they will be able to access their funds as usual at ATMs and retailers,” the statement read.

Beneficiaries are encouraged to visit their designated retailers, including Shoprite, Checkers, Pick n Pay, Boxer, SPAR and Usave to collect their new cards at no cost.