Postbank has apologised to social grant beneficiaries who were unable to access their January grants on Friday.
POSTBANK has apologised to social grant beneficiaries who were unable to access their January grants on Friday.
Local residents said that they were left empty-handed on January 6 when there was no money available at the ATM machines.
“Child grant and old-age beneficiaries were told to come back and check every day until the money was made available. This is highly inconvenient,” they said.
“When will these glitches be sorted out? During November and December we were told there was theft and fraud of R150 million and we were warned of a scam at the banks. Now in January, there are again delays when we have to buy school uniforms. Some retailers do not pay out our grants unless we buy groceries from them first. Social security grants are supposed to minimise the abject poverty that people are facing. When will services for the poorest of the poor ever improve?”
Long queues were also seen outside the post office building on Monday.
Postbank spokesperson Dr Bongani Diako attributed the delays to “system glitches” that affected payments during the morning of January 6.
“The systems glitches were resolved during the course of the morning on January 6. Grant payments are processing smoothly, wherein beneficiaries can access payments through multiple channels including ATMs, over-the-counter within post office branches as well as retail merchants that include Boxer, Pick n Pay, Usave, Shoprite, Spar and any retailer that has a cash-back functionality,” said Diako.
Diako explained that the Postbank system became “untimely unstable” at about 6am on the morning of January 6, resulting in social grants beneficiaries experiencing difficulties using the Sassa/Postbank gold card when performing transactions across the different National Payment System (NPS) and at access points such as ATMS, retailers and post office branches.
“We sincerely apologise to social grants beneficiaries that have been impacted by the technical glitches. Postbank technical teams have been working around the clock to ensure that there is stability on the systems. Most of the issues experienced in the morning were resolved at around noon. All social grants recipients using the Sassa/Postbank gold cards can now access their money through different NPS access channels (ATMs and retailers) including via post office branches.”
Beneficiaries can direct any enquiries regarding Sassa Postbank Powered Gold Card disbursement challenges to Postbank on 0800 53 54 55.
