SASSA speaks as card deadline looms

The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) says beneficiaries will be paid and that social assistance will continue. The agency said it was doing its best for social grant beneficiaries not to be inconvenienced in the April pay run and beyond as the drive to phase out the SASSA Gold card approaches its deadline in three days.

At a media briefing, SASSA CEO Themba Matlou said they had faced many challenges at the start of 2025, but the working relationship between the two entities, SASSA and Postbank, had improved significantly. Matlou said more than2.9 millionbeneficiaries were on the SASSA gold card at the beginning of the process.

“The card swap campaign 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 be supported by SASSA to expedite the process. SASSA had put in place additional human resources, extending working hours, Matlou said.

Community outreach programmes throughout the country targeted areas in the outskirts of South Africa where there were no Postbank sites.

“These outreaches were held even on weekends where we reached more people in community halls, Thusong Services Centres and in some shopping centres.”

Regulation 23 (1) of Social Assistance Act provides options for beneficiaries to choose the payment method of their choice.

“To this end beneficiaries were assisted with issuance of the new Postbank cards while some were also migrating to their own preferred bank accounts. This also necessitated SASSA to put in place extra capacity to capture all the submitted method of payment change forms,” Matlou said.

“SASSA continues to be central to administering and distributing grants to the most vulnerable people in our society: the elderly, bedridden and people living with disabilities among others,” Matlou said.

“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 March 20 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,” Matlou said.

“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.”

Beneficiaries were invited to make use of SASSA’s tollfree customer care number0800 601 011or[email protected].

The SASSA gold cards will stop working for grant payments at 5pm) on March 20, 2025. Beneficiaries have to replace them with the new Postbank black cards. The deadline was extended from the original cutoff of February 28.