CAPE TOWN – More than 60% of the country’s 10.9 million social grants beneficiaries will receive their money through the Post Office this month.
The Social Security Agency of South Africa (Sassa) officially took over the payment of grants on Monday bringing an end to a controversial contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) ruled invalid by the courts in 2014.
Sassa has informed the Constitutional Court through its latest monthly report that the majority of cash pay points will however only be operational from Monday 8 October.
The agency says it has met all its obligations to the court and no grant recipients will be paid by CPS this month.
It says it has now also signed a contract with the Post Office, the lack of which concerned a court-appointed panel of experts last month.
During this month, the Post Office will service 1,740 pay points to disburse grants to just more than 447,000 beneficiaries who receive cash.
Sassa says some of these pay points, which are relatively close to each other, may be consolidated in future.
But with the exception of some pay points in Gauteng, cash beneficiaries will have to wait until next week to get their money.
Sassa has told the court it has developed transport plans for each region to help beneficiaries to travel to remote pay points.
Just more than 2.1 million beneficiaries will access their money directly through their personal bank accounts.
Sassa says it will continue to explore alternative payment solutions to beneficiaries in areas where there is no infrastructure.
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