SASSA Gold Card deadline extended to 31 May
Postbank’s announcement comes after contradictory reports by SASSA and the Minister in the Presidency
After weeks of chaos, SASSA has announced that Gold Cards will remain valid until all clients have switched to Black Cards. Archive photo: Marecia Damons.
- SASSA Gold Cards will remain valid until 31 May, Postbank announced on Friday.
- This comes after weeks of chaos as Postbank scrambled to switch nearly 3-million people to the new cards.
- SASSA has urged beneficiaries to switch soon despite the extension to avoid last-minute delays.
The date by which South African Social Security Agency’s (SASSA) Gold Cards will stop working has been extended to 31 May, Postbank announced on Friday.
During a media briefing, Postbank CEO Nikki Mbangashe said the deadline had been extended again to further assist beneficiaries who had not yet switched to Black Cards.
“In discussions with stakeholders involved in the matter, we’ve all had concerns, and a consistent question was what would happen with people who have not replaced their cards [by 20 March]. Hopefully, this provides reprieve to those people,” she said.
This is the latest in a series of contradictory announcements on the deadline.
In a statement on Friday morning, SASSA said that the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) had allowed for “the continued use of the SASSA gold card until all the cards have been successfully replaced.”
But on Thursday, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that the deadline had been extended to 30 April.
Mbangashe apologised during the briefing for the confusion. “People have the whole of April and May. The card will continue working up until the last day of May,” she said.
This comes after weeks of chaos as Postbank, the state-owned bank through which SASSA paid 2.9-million grant beneficiaries, scrambled to switch clients to the new Black Card before the deadline on 20 March. By the deadline, only 1.3-million people had switched to the new card.
The transition, which has cost more than R200-million, has been marred by difficulties. Beneficiaries have had to travel long distances to reach a limited number of service points, endure lengthy queues for hours, and deal with frequent system failures.
SASSA’s acting CEO, Themba Matlou, welcomed the decision to extend the validity of the Gold Card but urged beneficiaries not to delay in switching to the Postbank Black Card.
“We humbly plea to our beneficiaries to use this opportunity and not wait for the last hour as this will further inconvenience them. From the onset, we listened to the cries of our beneficiaries and understood their frustration. This should not make you relax; this should make you to wake up tomorrow, with less pressure, and change your card,” Matlou said.
Mbangashe reassured beneficiaries that the Gold Card would function as usual until the new deadline. However, she stressed that cardholders should not go to Post Offices for grant payments unless they are asylum seekers, Mzansi Flexi Card users, or have lost their cards.
Mbangashe said Postbank has over 300 card replacement sites nationwide. To switch, beneficiaries will need their ID or temporary ID document and must go to their nearest site. Mbangashe said they are still working with selected retailers including Shoprite, Checkers, Usave, Pick ‘n Pay, Boxer and Spar. Beneficiaries can dial *120*355# on their cell phone to find a nearby card replacement site.
Timeline of chaotic card-switch
- November 2024: Postbank announces that Gold Cards set to expire on 31 December would remain valid, but that cardholders will eventually be required to switch to new Black Cards with enhanced security features that meet updated banking standards.
- November 2024-January 2025: Postbank issues between 2,300 and 3,500 Black Cards a day.
- 7 February 2025: Postbank sets a deadline for all cards to be switched by 28 February, increasing its target to 10,400 cards per day.
- 14 February 2025: The deadline is extended to 20 March. Gold Card holders are told their cards will no longer work after the deadline.
- 18 February 2025: Postbank is called to Parliament to address concerns about the slow pace of the transition. The bank announces plans to speed up the process by partnering with the Spar Group to introduce 200 additional service sites, and to train tellers to help ease congestion.
- 18 March 2025: Postbank says 1.1-million people have switched to the Black Card and it is issuing more than 30,000 Black Cards a day.
- 20 March 2025: The deadline comes and goes, with Postbank reporting that only 1.3-million of the 2.6-million social grant clients serviced by Postbank having switched to the new card. Tens of thousands of people have likely left Postbank and switched to private banks instead.
- 28 March 2025: Postbank extends the deadline again to 31 May, confirming that Gold Cards will remain valid until then.
An earlier version of this article was based on a statement from SASSA which said that Gold Cards would remain valid until all card holders have switched to Black Cards. Postbank confirmed on Friday afternoon that this was incorrect, and that the new deadline for cards to be switched is 31 May.
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