The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) is currently notifying all social grants beneficiaries of the expiry date and the renewal of social grant cards.
The social grant beneficiaries were also being informed of their right to either renew their cards or open an account at any bank of their choice.
“The target is to ensure the renewal of cards that are due to expire at the end of December 2023 to avoid inconvenience,” Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said.
Zulu was responding to parliamentary questions from Freedom Front Plus MP Tamarin Breedt, who asked about the process Sassa beneficiaries needed to follow in order to renew their gold cards after the expiry date of the gold cards was postponed until end of December.
Breedt also wanted to know whether there were any plans in place to prevent thousands of beneficiaries from running out of time to renew their gold cards.
Zulu said the Postbank team has prepared a Sassa card replacement distribution plan.
“This will serve as a framework upon which the card replacement program roll-out will be undertaken throughout the country.
“The Sassa card replacement distribution plan seeks to mitigate such challenges and ensure timely information is shared with the public within a reasonable period of time.
“This will allow all beneficiaries enough time to collect their cards before 31 December 2023.”
The minister also said the Postbank has planned to allocate approximately 2000 employees for the initiative.
Zulu added that Postbank would communicate the introduction of the new card following consultations with the South African Reserve Bank and others.
“Beneficiaries will be notified on time to utilize identified channels in a staggered approach to replace their gold card,” she said.
“All the gold cards will be replaced with black cards and this will be communicated to the public.
“All efforts are currently being made to ensure that Postbank is ready to issue the cards before December 2023,” Zulu said.
Cape Times