The South Africa Social Security Agency (Sassa) in the North West says it is working around the clock with the South African Post Office (Sapo).
Sassa wants to ensure that those who have been unable to access their social grants since the post office has taken over payouts from Cash Paymaster Services, (CPS) are assisted as soon as possible.
Sassa briefed the media in the province’s capital city of Mahikeng earlier this week on the progress made since the post office took over.
Desperate pensioners, many of them left without their only source of income, told their stories of insufficient funds for withdrawals at ATM’s and Sassa pay-out points.
“My children went to the post office in Mahikeng, but they returned with nothing, saying there is no money in the account. Even just last week I came here in our community hall, still I returned without money. We are very hungry, we need that money,” says one pensioner.”
“We are very hungry. They said we must change our cards, now we struggling to get our grants. Even to date, we still come here at the pay point, nothing is happening,” adds another pensioner.
The post office’s system seems unable to handle the high volumes of grant holders trying to swop cards, and access grants.
Sassa says, more than 330 000 beneficiaries in the province have successfully swopped their cards and 16 000 more need to replace them before the end of the month.
Sapo is expected to have fully taken over the service, by the 1st of October.
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