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Sassa staff assisting beneficiaries.
South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) beneficiaries have welcomed the card extension from February 28 to March 20 despite concerns over long queues at big retail stores where card renewals are taking place.
Card renewals are taking place at retail stores due to a number of Post Office branches being closed.
Residents are forced to wait in long queues at retail stores but many leave without the card.
“The Post Office is not working, they will send you to Shoprite and there’s only one line that is working. They attend to four people, we were turned away several times and we are out of money now. If the residents should be turned away from Groblersdal to Mpumalanga, especially the elders who carried ID’s and gold cards, be told to go open a bank account, queues are very long especially here at KwaMhlanga. They only attend 50 people per day, others go back,” says one of the residents.
PODCAST | The deadline to swap old gold SASSA cards for the new black ones has officially been extended to 20 March.
Meanwhile, Mpumalanga SASSA spokesperson Senzeni Ngubeni has acknowledged the challenges and frustrations faced by some of their beneficiaries but insists that there will be no other extension going forward.
“The extension from 28 February to 20 March is because we can’t finish them all right now. The lines are too long but they must come, they must not relax and wait up until the last minute. The outreach programmes are going to be rolled out where the card replacement is also going to be done,” adds Ngubeni.
Related video: SASSA beneficiaries have until March 20 to renew their cards:
