Sassa beneficiaries rush to beat the last-day deadline for new cards

Social grants beneficiaries queued in long lines at retail stores on Thursday to ensure they get their new Postbank black cards as the Sassa gold cards are set to stop working after midnight on Thursday.

The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) office in Braamfontein turned away people on Thursday afternoon, saying it was short-staffed.

A woman who asked not to be identified told TimesLIVE that she had been in the queue outside the Sassa office since 6am to get the Postbank card but she was later turned away.

“We were told to come back on April 1 as they were short-staffed after the arrests that were made this week,” she said.

Postbank CEO Nikki Mbengashe said Sassa and Postbank were committed to ensuring no-one was left behind, and all grant beneficiaries would be able to replace their cards.

“Our strategy for where we chose to issue our cards is based on where customers get their grants now. We have worked with these retailers because they are familiar to our customers and we endeavoured to be as close as possible to where most beneficiaries are in each province,” said Mbengashe.

Another Sassa beneficiary said she had been waiting in line at a Boxer store in Noord Street in the Johannesburg CBD from 4am.

“We have been standing out here from 4am until now and the line has just started moving — at 11am. There are only two people inside Boxer who are helping. I am worried that they might cut the line at 4pm because the store will be closing.” 

Postbank said it would continue with the card swap until the end of June at selected Shoprite, Checkers, Usave, Pick n Pay, Boxer and Spar stores to help with those who were not helped on Friday.

TimesLIVE