KZN beneficiaries urged to collect Money at Retailers and ATMs. Image: iStock
SASSA grants: Will there be September payments?
The system challenges that affected Postbank last week made the SASSA grant beneficiaries anxious about September payments.
KZN beneficiaries urged to collect Money at Retailers and ATMs. Image: iStock
Beneficiaries of social grants have been informed by the government and its agencies—Postbank and the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA)—that they would get their payments for the month of September 2023.
In a joint press conference with Postbank and SASSA on Thursday in Pretoria. The ministers of social development Lindiwe Zulu and communications and digital technologies Mondli Gungubele. Expressed regret sincerely to recipients of social grants who had trouble accessing their funds over the previous week.
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What are the ministers saying about the SASSA grant September payment?
“Government assures South Africa and social grants beneficiaries. That all social grants beneficiaries that have not yet received their social grants payments will be paid their money in full.
“Postbank and SASSA staff will be in communities this entire week to assess progress in the delayed payment of grants and to assist recipients who may require further guidance and assistance,” Minister Gungubele said.
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According to Gungubele, the system issues caused some beneficiaries transactions to result in “transaction incomplete errors”. As a result of the system’s communication timeouts.
According to him, “transaction incomplete errors” are frequent problems with banking payment systems that typically go undiscovered because of automated reversal functionality.
“The system challenges that affected Postbank unfortunately impacted the availability of the auto reversal functionality. Regrettably, this resulted in some social grants beneficiaries that were due to be paid on the 5th and 6th of September 2023 not receiving their social grants payments on time.
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“We would like to reassure our social grants beneficiaries, the public and all stakeholders that the system challenges were as a matter of fact resolved on the morning of the 6th of September 2023. The Postbank system has been working optimally since the afternoon of 6 September 2023,” he said.
Fund reversals made
More than 500 000 fund reversals have been conducted by Postbank to this point. The affected recipients have received their social grant payments.
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The process is time-consuming and has taken longer than expected, according to the Minister. He also stressed the importance of acknowledging this. Manual processes are used in the process.
Customers who need assistance and are still having trouble accessing their grant money are urged to call.
The Postbank call center at 0800 53 54 55 or send an email to PBbalancingSaswitch@postbank.co.za
