With the South African Post Office (Sapo) being placed under provisional liquidation by a single creditor, many collecting a grant from the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) will be feeling uncertain of how they will be able to access their money.
Shoprite announced on Thursday that SASSA grant beneficiaries with gold cards expiring in the next few months could avoid long queues and payment mishaps by switching their payments, free of charge, to a Shoprite Money Market Account.
The retailer says that the money market account is South Africa’s lowest cost, fully-fledged, transactional bank account.
Grant holders can open the account by following the below steps:
Switch SASSA payments:
Register: Dial *120*3534# OR WhatsApp 087 240 5709 OR visit the in-store Money Market counter OR download the Shoprite app.
Sign in & download your Bank Confirmation Letter.
Download the SASSA form or collect one at the Money Market counter in any Shoprite or Checkers supermarket.
Take your printed Bank Confirmation Letter, completed SASSA switch form and original ID to your nearest SASSA office.
Shoprite also said that grant recipients would get up to R100 in Shoprite vouchers when their first SASSA grant of R800 or more is paid into their Money Market Account.
Some of the benefits of a Money Market Account include:
- No monthly fees. Clients only pay a flat R5 fee for cash withdrawals. All other transactions are free and no other South African bank account matches this offer.
- Clients have full control over their money through SMS payment notifications and real-time balance enquiries on their phone.
- Skip long queues and high fees at ATMs by depositing and withdrawing cash at any of the more than 25 000 till points at Shoprite, Checkers and Usave supermarkets nationwide.
- Clients don’t pay any fees to send money, buy airtime, data, electricity, send grocery vouchers, pay bills and pay for groceries from their phones.
Provisional liquidators have been appointed at SAPO after the Master of the High Court issued a certificate of appointment to Kaap Vaal Trust on March 30, 2023. Kaap Vaal Trust applied for provisional liquidation after the Post Office was unable to pay its debts.
According to its most recent financial statements for the 2021/22 year to end-March 2022, it owes more than R4.4 billion to creditors, and its debt exceeded its assets by R4bn.
The National Treasury awarded the state-owned entity a R2.4 billion cash injection earlier this year to clear its debt.
Last month it was reported that SAPO had closed another 92 post offices, with 50 of them being closed by unpaid landlords.
In October, Johan Kruger, the head of communications for the SA Post Office, said that 1 200 post offices were functioning.
The closure of post offices has the knock-on effect of denying people access to critical services, particularly for those in rural communities who rely on post offices as their primary means of obtaining their social grants.
In February, the Communication Workers Union said it would take action to ensure no jobs were lost after the Post Office announced that it was contemplating reducing staff numbers.
The union said the proposed retrenchments could see 6 000 jobs lost, leaving thousands of families without breadwinners.
BUSINESS REPORT