Green, white and gold: Which Sassa card is the right one?
Staff at Vryheid post office addressing the confusion over the different Sassa cards being issued.
Hlekesazi Bulungu stands shivering in the Sassa queue outside the post office on Wednesday morning wearing an expression of anxious contemplation.
In his hand, he holds three different cards he said he received from Sassa, the old white card, the new gold card and the Easypay-Everyhwere green card.
It was clear that he does not understand why he has three cards, what they are for, or which one should be used to collect his grant. What he does understand is the hunger, cold and desperation his family will suffer if he is unable to collect his money.
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Addressing the confusion over the different cards being issued, staff at the Vryheid post office explained that the old white Sassa card was being phased out, and beneficiaries will only be able to use these cards until the end of September. All beneficiaries will have to take their ID’s and old Sassa cards to the post office, in order to be issued with the new gold Sassa card. Only the new gold Sassa cards will be recognized by Sassa from October.
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The green Easypay-Everywhere cards are not linked to Sassa, nor are they linked to the post office. They are being issued by lending company, Moneyline (Moneyline and CPS are both subsidiaries of a company called Net1), to grant beneficiaries, many of whom were coerced into taking a loan. SASSA has no control over the green card and does not recognise it. All social grant recipients who use the green card are not protected if something happens to their grant as the only recognised and protected card is the SASSA payment card.
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