Sassa Promises to Pay Grant Recipients on Time After Solving Technical Issues, SA Doubtful: “You've Got Jokes”

• The South African Social Security Association has promised that every grant recipient will receive their payments in January 2023
• Sassa claims it has fixed the technical issues that barred some SRD beneficiaries from collecting their payouts in November and December
• South Africans aren't convinced that the payments will happen in time and have learnt to expect disappointment from Sassa

JOHANNESBURG - Grant recipients were greeted with good news in the new year after the South African Social Security Association (Sassa) promised to pay recipients on time in January 2023.

The announcement comes after several Social Relief of Distress (SRD) recipients weren't able to access their grants on the specified payment dates in November and December.

However, Sassa spokesperson Moabi Pitsi assured that the technical difficulties that led to non-payment at the end of last year had been cleared, eNCA reported.

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Pitsi claimed that Sassa would start paying grants, including the old age grants, disability grants and child support grants from Tuesday, 3 January until Thursday 5 January.

According to TimesLIVE, all grants except the SRD grant can be collected at post office branches. Gold card holders can withdraw their payouts at any retail outlet across the country.

Sassa assured card users that they will still receive their grant payout after the association suspended ATM withdrawals in December because of fraud.

South Africans are sceptical that the grant payments will happen on time.

Here's what citizens are saying:

Daman Tailor commented:

"I don't believe anything to do with Sassa."

Mishti Rai added:

"Can someone clarify what "on time" means because we've been waiting since 2021? You've got jokes, man."

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Khonjiswa Gumbi Lidiah complained:

"Tjooo, this Sassa card."

Thato Ralekeke said:

"We hope so."

Balekwa Njoku demanded:

"Instead of grants, give us jobs!"

Katlego KmsPictures Selemale speculated:

"Next time they won't get anything at all."

Mpho Bennedict claimed:

"It's a scam."

Reserve Bank gave Postbank another year to fix its security issues, Mzansi fed up: “Forget fixing it”

In a related story, Briefly News reported that the South African Reserve Bank granted Postbank another 12-month extension to fix the security issues causing problems with the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) grant payment cards.

The irregularities in the security measure for Sassa-branded cards were first detected in February 2019 and the Reserve Bank ordered Postbank to plug the holes by March 2021.

According to Sunday Times, there was a major security breach that exposed the personal data of millions of social-grant recipients which forced Postbank to replace 12 million bank cards at a cost of R1 billion.

Source: Briefly News