Shoprite's grant fiasco

Shoprite infuriated grant recipients when it put up the following notice at a store in George: "Please note: Sassa card/cash withdrawels (sic) [from tills] will only be done on purchases of over R100."

Western Cape social development MEC Albert Fritz said he was angered when he heard of a pensioner who could allegedly only access his money after making a purchase. "Pensioners are already challenged with having to stretch their grant to cover all their living expenses," said Fritz.

An SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) spokesman said grant recipients can use a Sassa-issued card to withdraw their grant money from an ATM and at some shops.

But making a purchase from a retailer was not a prerequisite for receiving grant money.

Shoprite agreed, saying the sign erred in its " unfortunate wording".

"The Shoprite Group has this morning taken immediate action to rectify the impression created by its George branch that making a purchase is a prerequisite for withdrawing grant money," the company said.

"The unfortunately worded notice on a number of tills in the store was displayed from March 1 for the first time and was the result of an effort to reserve certain tills for grant withdrawals only and others for customers making purchases and requesting grant withdrawals."

The service is supposed to be free at Shoprite and money can be collected on the first day of the month.

Shoprite said that 49% of Sassa card transactions at the George outlet from March 1 to March 3 were withdrawals only.

In February Shoprite paid 1.3million people - more than 60% of them in the first three days of the month. Shoprite said customers are "increasingly inconvenienced" when "thousands of grant recipients" descend on stores.

The deputy managing director of Shoprite Checkers, Carel Goosen, wrote to Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini on February 13 asking for a meeting to discuss the problem.

He said other outlets are cancelling the grant-payout service because it has caused an "increased burden" on business.

"Unfortunately, we too, will have to consider terminating the service if there are not material changes made to the current payout dates."