Organisation calls for extension for SASSA gold card replacement

Pay the Grants, a campaign advocating for economic justice, is calling for an extension of the SASSA gold card replacement period.

Last week, the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) and the Postbank urged recipients to exchange their gold cards for the new Postbank black cards by the end of this month.

Pay the Grants says the time frame is too short and doesn’t consider the beneficiaries’ personal circumstances.

“We have millions of grant recipients; the queues are so long. People are not going to be able to exchange their cards on time to receive their grants on time next month. This is going to be chaos, so again as the department, I’m urging them to extend the time and give the beneficiaries sufficient time as they did not communicate with the beneficiaries previously regarding this. They just spring that onto beneficiaries. Another thing is, these retailers, are not in the areas where the beneficiaries are residing,” Deputy Chair of Pay the Grants, Elizabeth Raiters.