Many people in Grahamstown who depend on social grants were shocked on Sunday to discover that they could no longer access them through their Absa grant accounts.
Many people in Grahamstown who depend on social grants were shocked on Sunday to discover that they could no longer access them through their Absa grant accounts.
Since 2007 social grants have been managed by Absa subsidiary AllPay and recipients have used the bank's Sekulula cards to access their monthly payments. The Sekulula account was specially designed by Absa to use for channelling social grants.
After a controversial tender process which saw the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) award the administration of the payments to Cash Paymaster Systems in January this year, followed by an extensive re-registering process, beneficiaries say they have been left high and dry.
Thousands of people in Grahamstown rely on social grants to survive. Last month grant recipients received letters telling them to re-register and get their new Sassa-branded biometric magstripe cards at the Sassa offices.
The people who complained to Grocott's Mail had re-registered and collected their new cards, they said. This was the first month they were to use the new cards and on Sunday, being the first day of the month when grants are usually paid into recipients' accounts, there were long queues outside ATMs in Grahamstown.
But news spread quickly that the new cards were not working as frustrated people trickled back to their homes, empty-handed.
When Grocott's Mail spoke to some of the disgruntled Sassa clients on Tuesday, the situation had not changed. Monique Rooi, a grant recipient, said on Tuesday morning she went to the Sassa offices in Grahamstown and was told that it was only Absa that had a problem paying grants, and not other banks.
"There are many people who did not receive their grants and some say they only get half of it with others not getting it at all," said Rooi. Another grant recipient, Nandipha Mancam, said when they went to the Sassa offices to ask about this they were told to go to Shoprite and draw the money there.
Simnikiwe Masinda said her card had not come out of the ATM after she had tried a couple of times to withdraw the money. "This is a crisis. I know my pin number but now I have lost my card. I don't even know why they changed the Absa cards because there was no problem before," said Masinda.
Nosikhumbuzo Dyokomba told of a chilly reception at Absa bank when they tried to ask why the cards didn't work. "They refused to give us bank statements, saying we no longer belong to Absa bank now. I haven't eaten for a while and my kids are waiting back at home with the hope that their money is coming," Dyokomba said.
Absa referred Grocott's Mail's request for comment to Sassa. The communication business partner for Absa group marketing and communication in the Eastern and Southern Cape, Cathy Schwarz, said in an emailed response: "Sassa is managing the disbursement of social grants (Allpay is no longer a service provider to Sassa). Please redirect the query to Sassa."
Luzuko Qina, the East London-based communications officer for Sassa, said: "People can access their social grants anywhere. Massive access channels have been opened for people to access their grants."
Qina said recipients could access their grants using the new cards at Shoprite, Pick n Pay, Checkers and at any ATM that was Mastercard-compatible. The partnership between Absa subsidiary AllPay and Sassa went sour earlier this year, with AllPay accusing Sassa of an irregular tender process. This was after Cash Paymaster Services won the tender to pay out grants in January.
At the same time, Sassa went on a big campaign to re-register all social grant beneficiaries from 1 March this year to 25 March. This was an effort by the Department of Social Development to eliminate corruption in the social grant system and incorporated the introduction of the biometric-based payment system.
