Human Rights organisation, Black Sash has raised concerns regarding challenges faced by Social Security Agency (Sassa) beneficiaries in their quest to replace their Gold cards before they are phased out on February 28.
Beneficiaries who do not replace their cards in time will be unable to withdraw funds, make transactions, or check balances as the cards will be deactivated.
Postbank has offered replacement cards to beneficiaries still wanting to retain the benefits of the Sassa gold card.
"Sadly, the whole replacement process has been plagued by several challenges which Black Sash and our partners have witnessed first-hand on the ground during the grant payment week in February 2025," said Black Sash spokesperson, Oliver Meth.
Meth said sites that have been selected by Postbank don't reflect where Sassa card holders live and even accessing the information on their ‘closest’ site has been plagued by inaccurate information.
"Some sites do not exist, and the retailers share that they are not aware that Postbank card replacements were supposed to be happening at their stores,'' he said.
Meth added that they also noted that beneficiaries who had swapped over to the Postbank Black cards were experiencing short payments on their grants and were unable to be assisted by the Postbank staff responsible for card replacements and they are not sure how to address the issue.
"Postbank and Sassa have failed to ensure a smooth transition, forcing beneficiaries to endure long queues, network glitches and being turned away without completing their card replacements, and uncertainty about how they will receive their grants going forward."
Moreover, Meth said even after beneficiaries make the journey to the sites, technical issues, such as network outages on grant payment days, continue to hinder the replacement process.
"We are concerned that hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries may not meet the 28 February deadline. This is a direct violation of their constitutional right to social assistance," he said.
Speaking to IOL, Sassa spokesperson, Andile Tshona said the process to migrate Sassa beneficiaries from Gold cards to Postbank Black card started in September 2024 and it was a well-considered process with the hope that people will head the call on time to allow a seamless process.
"Unfortunately, this has not been the case. All the resources were put in place by the two entities, and it was hope and wish that all the bases were covered, unfortunately, we have experienced challenges in some areas while we have not experienced challenges in other areas,'' he said.
Tshona added that to access people in remote areas, the agency was working closely with Postbank to ensure that everyone even in rural areas is reached and assisted with ease.
When asked whether the agency will consider extending the deadline, Tshona said the Minister of Social Development, Nokuzola Tolashe as well as the Minister of Communication and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi are regularly briefed on the progress and if a need arises to extend the deadline, an announcement will be made.