With just two days remaining until the SASSA Gold card phase-out concludes, beneficiaries are urged to finalize their migration to avoid disruption in their grant payments.

This essential process ensures continued access to social assistance, and it’s important to act quickly to meet the deadline.

SASSA National Spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi said they faced so many challenges at the beginning of the year, however, the working relationship between the two entities, SASSA and Postbank, improved significantly.

” We have one common goal: a smooth migration process. The output has been to put the interests of more than 2.9 million beneficiaries who were on the SASSA gold card at the beginning of the process.

“Through our joint communication initiatives on various communication platforms, more clients began to visit various parts of Postbank sites. This intervention has brought positive results since the commencement of the migration process.”

Letsatsi said the card swap campaign did not happen overnight, the government had to comply with the processes and prescripts outlined by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).

“Postbank as the Bank that drives the migration, had to supported by SASSA’s on few initiatives and interventions to expedite the process. This required that SASSA put in place additional human resources, extending working hours to have officials work overtime as well as intensifying its communication drive.”

Postbank started replacing SASSA Gold Cards with the new Postbank Black Cards in September 2024.

What should you do to get the Postband Black Card:

To get the new Postbank Black Cards, beneficiaries are only required to have a valid South African ID or a temporary ID.

No card will be issued without these documents. Ensuring that minimum documentation is required to get the new Postbank Black Cards is in line with SASSA and Postbank’sPostbank’s ongoing commitment to continuously improve the customer experience of all social grant beneficiaries.

Getting the new Postbank Black Card is also free of charge for all beneficiaries, something that supports Postbank’sPostbank’s financial inclusion mandate and SASSA’sSASSA’s social welfare responsibilities.

The new Postbank Black Cards work in all the National Payment System channels that include ATMs, retailer’sretailer’s point-of-sale machines and any place that accepts a bank card immediately after being issued to a beneficiary, so there is no waiting period for when they can be used for transactions.

The new cards also have updated safety and card features.

The great news for social grant beneficiaries is that they will continue enjoying the same benefits that they are getting from the Gold Cards when switching to the new Postbank Black Cards and these include:
• One free card replacement per year
• 3 free withdrawals in stores per month
• 1 free monthly statement over the counter

Here is how to see where you can collect your black Postbank card:

Postbank has also made it easy for beneficiaries to locate the nearest place in every province where they can collect their Postbank Black Cards. All they need to do from the comfort of their homes is to use their cellphone and:

1. Dial: *120*218*3#
2. To continue, reply by pressing number: 1; and
3. Reply with the number representing the province they live in.

“Working with Postbank, we have come up with plans to ensure that we do home visits to effectively assist those who cannot reach various card replacement sites. We will continue to intensify this process even beyond the 20th of March if they have not migrated by then.

“Our outreach programmes will also continue beyond the 20th of March as we want to ensure that we assist as many people as possible to ensure that they are not inconvenienced in the April pay run and beyond.

“Working with Postbank, as SASSA, we want to assure our beneficiaries in all the corners of the country that social assistance will continue, and everyone will be paid as per the norm.”

Also read: Everything you need to know about the new April SASSA grant increases

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to bennittb@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram or TikTok.