GEORGE NEWS - Since Postbank card replacement has been set in motion in George on 3 February, there has been an outcry for more than the existing two sites where social grant beneficiaries from the Garden Route can exchange their gold cards for the new black card. The deadline for replacing the gold card with the black card is 20 March.
Clive Jansen, executive support manager for the South African Social Services Agency (Sassa), confirmed to the newspaper that the Postbank will set up more sites.
"There are13 operational card replacement sites in the Western Cape and Postbank is planning to set more up sites."
Jansen said there are about 23 000 beneficiaries in the Sassa George local office service area who need to replace their cards. Clients can go to any of the two sites in George - Shoprite Van der Stel Square and Shoprite Thembalethu Square.
To date, the Postbank has not yet responded to a query regarding possible additional sites in the Garden Route and whether the card replacement process could be completed by the deadline, seeing the shortage of sites.
Grant payments will continue as usual, even after the 20 March deadline.
According to a recent joint statement by the Communications and Digital Technologies and Social Development departments, the grants of beneficiaries who have not replaced their cards by then will still be paid, but they must visit their nearest post office branch to access their funds.
‘Ons bring jou die nuutste Tuinroete, Hessequa, Karoo nuus’
