DA: Sassa, Post Office should have been better prepared
The Democratic Alliance (DA) says the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) and the South African Post Office should have been better prepared for the changes to the system used to pay social grants.
Glitches in the new payment system has caused delays in payments, with the DA saying to close than 2.8 million South Africans have been impacted.
The DA's Bridget Masango says Sassa should have ensured that all pay points had been converted to the new system ahead of this month’s grants payments.
"It is very sad because the people that are beneficiaries of Sassa are classified or categoriesed as the poor and vulnerable. Which means most of them if not all of them have no other from income other than Sassa grants."
Sassa has since issued as statement assuring beneficiaries that they will be able to access their money before the end of the week.
Acting CEO Abraham Mahlangu says the organisation is working hard to resolve the problems experienced by some grants beneficiaries.
“We are aware that beneficiaries are experiencing problems with the electronic payment of their social grants. What is being experienced is a result of a process of changing from an old to a new payment system for social grants."
Mahlangu says the organisation is in a process of phasing out Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) as directed by the Constitutional Court, and introducing the Post Office a a method to pay social grants.