Cape Town - Around 600 000 people or 10% of social grant recipients, namely the elderly using the SASSA/ Postbank Gold cards were affected by late or partial payments of social grants, prompting nationwide furore over the delayed payments to the most vulnerable.
Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu and Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Mondli Gungubele addressed the media on the delayed South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) grant payments in Pretoria yesterday.
Reading out a joint ministerial statement, Gungubele said on September 5 and 6 that Postbank experienced intermittent system challenges at ATMs and retailers leading to failed withdrawal attempts by grant recipients of old age and disability grants.
The intermittent system challenges resulted from a systems upgrade the bank was introducing to provide a better service, he said, and that the issue had been resolved on the morning of September 6.
“However, there might be a few beneficiaries who have not yet received their social grants.
“Unfortunately, due to the automated reversal not working on the 5th and 6th, a number of clients, mainly the elderly, were unable to access their funds for a prolonged period as a manual access had to be implemented to credit their accounts.”
The majority of these accounts, more than 500 000 have been corrected and clients have been able to access their money, Gungubele said.
“However, it is important to acknowledge that due to the manual process involved the process is time-consuming, which has taken longer than a desirable period for clients that were impacted since last week to access their money.”
Gungubele said Postbank and Sassa staff would be out to assist recipients who may still be encountering problems due to the delayed payments.
He noted that there had been attempts to defraud the system as some who had received their funds were attempting to get “double payments”.
“Our system is very thorough and therefore, people will not be able to defraud the system. Instead, what they’re doing is clogging up the system and thereby delaying dealing with the valid reversals. We condemn these attempts and further warn those people to stop this as well as reporting attempted cases of fraud to law enforcement agencies.”
The ministers’ briefing comes a few days after five Postbank board members, including its chairperson, resigned just days before its AGM.
Gungubele said the resignations came after an attempt by the minister to intervene in dealing with governance challenges which the board had to answer for.
“For whatever reason, board members knowing the decision that was possibly going to be taken in the AGM today (yesterday), they opted to pre-empt that, in my view, and leave.”
One of these “fundamental problems” had been the continuation of an illegal contract, which was paid no less than R150 million with no justifiable reason as to why it was continued.
Postbank CEO Nikki Mbengashe apologised for the payment delay.
“We are sorry for what we have caused on the ground. We recognise the impact, we understand it, we relate to it. I relate to it having been raised by a mother who benefited from Sassa grants and therefore I know how it feels not to get your money on time.”
Those still affected by delayed payments can contact the Postbank call centre on 0800 535 455 or WhatsApp a message to 073 806 1631.