Cape Town - Amid an outcry over the suspension of ATM withdrawals for Sassa beneficiaries, Postbank maintains it is a necessary measure only for the month of December to curb fraud.
Criminal elements attacking Postbank’s network resulted in the suspension of the grants funds ATM channel, as the financial service provider said its “early alert system detecting unusual activities that demonstrated possible ATM fraud” called for swift action.
“To protect the integrity of the payments we, therefore, had limited choices but to temporarily suspend ATM funds access only for the December month to curb the possible fraud.
Law enforcement is engaged with the matter as is a team of external forensic experts,” said Postbank spokesperson Bongani Diako.
According to Diako, most Sassa beneficiaries using the Sassa gold card had already been paid when the decision to suspend ATM payments was taken.
“We identified approximately 400 000 beneficiaries whose funds had not been reversed automatically after attempting to access their funds via this channel when the ATM services were suspended.
As of December 10 2022, the reversals of these funds had been completed for most of the beneficiaries at near 100 percentile and we are now addressing exceptions on a case-by-case basis. Postbank sincerely apologises for the beneficiaries experience with us this time around and we promise to do better going forward.”
He said progress had been made on the IT side.
“We anticipate resuming ATM Sassa gold cards funds access in no more prolonged time.
Postbank made a voluntary decision to redirect their payments to the merchants, who have always been part of the payments access, in order to prevent possible fraud. The Sassa gold card remains valid as a means of accessing grants funds.”
Social Development MEC, Sharna Fernandez, said her office had received numerous complaints of Postbank-issued Sassa gold cards not working.
“The suspension of ATM withdrawals for Sassa beneficiaries by Postbank is unacceptable, especially just before this important time of the year.
Rather than fix this long-running problem, Postbank suspended ATM withdrawals for December while it deals with the problem.
Beneficiaries’ using these Sassa gold cards have been asked to withdraw their social grants at retail outlets that provide the cashback functionality. But our office has received numerous complaints from beneficiaries and ward councillors that even this has been a failure.
“The flagrant disregard displayed by Sassa and National DSD to the plight of many vulnerable citizens, is deeply disturbing. We need bold, decisive leadership to resolve this crisis.”
The National Department of Social Development did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.
Cape Times