A technical glitch at Postbank has resulted in thousands of SASSA grant beneficiaries being left stranded without money for food and other basic services.
The glitch was confirmed by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) on Tuesday night.
In a brief statement issued on their social media platforms, they assured beneficiaries that technical teams were working around the clock.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called this particularly worrying as Wednesday is the allocated day for disability grants.
The DA has encouraged beneficiaries to ditch the problematic gold card system and open back accounts where their money would be safer.
This is not the first time a technical glitch has been reported at Postbank which lost over R18 million last year in what they called cybercrime attacks.
In December last year, Postbank CEO Lucas Ndala told Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Communications that most of the cyber attacks were related to the SASSA grant payment system.
He also told the Committee that their IT system was flagged by the Auditor General for having weaknesses.
At the time Groundup reported that Postbank would spend over R400 million over the next three years to upgrade and modernise its IT systems.
In Tuesday's brief statement from the State-owned entity, they said they had a deep understanding of the inconvenience and challenges the glitch has caused.
The unreserved apology, however, was of little to no comfort to thousands of beneficiaries who depended on the money for their most basic needs.
Beneficiaries who are Gold Card holders can still access payments from South African Post Offices (SAPO).
DA MP Alexandra Abrahams said many SAPO branches have closed down across the country due to what they called the incompetence of the ANC government.
She said this left the few open branches overwhelmed with the current situation.
UPDATE: 14.00 Postbank says it has fully restored ATM SASSA grant transaction access, but adds that it’s still busy restoring full transaction capacity inside retailers.
