From BAD to worse for 2025 SASSA Gold card swaps

Even with a 2025 SASSA Gold card swap extension to Thursday 20 March 2025, needy beneficiaries worry they’ll still run out of time. The South African Social Security Agency has been appealing to Postbank clients to replace their 2025 SASSA Gold card as soon as possible. But feedback from SASSA beneficiaries on the level of service they’ve received is anything but complimentary, reports GroundUp.

The 2025 SASSA Gold card swap started back in September 2024, but clients already reported difficulties back then. Due to precious little communication from the agency, retailers didn’t even know what grant recipients were talking about and turned them away. Now, there’s a mad rush to complete 2025 SASSA Gold card swaps in the remaining four weeks.

2025 SASSA GOLD CARD SWAP

The true extent of the difficulty Postbank clients face is only being fully realised now. Difficulties like long travel distances to service points from rural areas, long queues when there, system offline failures and running out of replacement cards. Even now, Postbank has not yet met its initial goal of issuing 25 000 cards per day. Between September 2024 and January 2025, no more than 2 500 to 3 000 replacement cards were being issued daily. That’s nowhere near enough when you consider 30% of all SASSA beneficiaries still use Postbank, which accounts for roughly 3-million residents.

However, in February, after Postbank and SASSA put out a joint press release, the average card issuance jumped up to 10 500 per day. Nevertheless, to meet its target by 20 March, Postbank will need to issue ten-times that number – 100 000 cards per day, reports GroundUp.

ACCELERATED PROCESS

Therefore, Postbank announced this week it is partnering with Spar to provide an additional 200 stores nationwide. However, while Postbank claims it has a sufficient number of sites, it admits there are not enough people to man them. Training takes five days, and recruitment and vetting for the job is required, too. The question must surely be asked – why was SASSA and Postbank not better prepared for this?

A reminder to those still to transact their 2025 SASSA Gold card swaps, that after the deadline, the cards will not function at all. Whether it be to withdraw cash, check balances or any other retail purchases. Acting SASSA CEO Themba Matlou did say that SASSA funds will still be paid into the grant accounts. However, accessing the funds will not be possible until the 2025 SASSA Gold card swap is done. Postbank claims the reason for the swap is that the new Black cards have enhanced security and meet up-to-date banking standards.

EASE QUEUES

Furthermore, to ease congestion in queues, Postbank says it’s expanding its cardless cash withdrawal system. To handle high call volumes, Postbank has doubled its contact centre staff. For service sites near you, use the USSD code 120218*3#. Moreover, Matlou says the agency has identified major hotspots that require special outreach intervention. Community halls are being used as service points to provide beneficiaries with shelter while waiting. Plus, SASSA has assigned two employees per site and prioritised elderly beneficiaries in the queues.

HOW DID YOU FIND YOUR SASSA CARD SWAP EXPERIENCE?

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