After patiently waiting in long queues at the various retail pay points, social grant recipients returned home with frustrations after not being able to access their funds due to a system issue.
It was an unpleasant day for thousands of the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant recipients as their payments were not processed at retail pay points. According to PostBank, the problem was due to connectivity issues within the Sassa payment services platform.
In an interview, Postbank interim CEO, Lucas Ndala explained:
The timeouts are experienced when we have high volumes. The team has begun its investigation and started working on isolating the problem.
Ndala also said that it is also difficult to tell which areas are impacted but said Postbank will engage with various retailers.
While most social grant recipients access their funds at retail chain stores such as Pick n Pay, Boxer, Usave, Shoprite, and Checkers, some use the services of the Post Office.
South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has chosen these retail chain stores and bank ATMs as payout points as an interim solution following issues at the Post Office.
Disheartened #PayTheGrant Western Cape coordinator, Bravo Thompson shared that many people rely on the grant as most people are unemployed and pointed out that many people are tired of the existing SRD grant backlogs.
Ndala has refuted rumors that surfaced claiming that the Sassa gold cards issued by PostBank were no longer functional.
It has been confirmed that all the grant cards are still valid. Recipients are advised to go to the nearest Sassa office to do a card swap should they lose their payment cards.
