20 March deadline for Sassa card migration nearly impossible, says deputy minister

Nandi Manakaza came from Nyanga on Tuesday 4 March to Cape Town in order to migrate her SASSA card from the gold cards, which is the process of being phased out. (Photo: Suné Payne)

By Suné Payne

4 Mar 2025

The deadline for grant recipients to migrate to new cards is in just over two weeks, but as Deputy Minister Mondli Gungubele says, this has become ‘nearly impossible’.

“It’s clear to us that that process is going to go beyond 20 March 2025, the end of March,” said Mondli Gungubele, the deputy communications and digital communications minister, about the transition process for the ongoing social grant card migration.

Gungubele made these remarks on Tuesday, 4 March, during a social development oversight committee meeting in the Western Cape legislature. Gungubele and officials from Postbank and the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) briefed the committee on the migration process from the older gold cards to newer black cards.

As Daily Maverick previously reported, the new Postbank cards come with enhanced security features, including biometric authentication and improved encryption, guaranteeing faster and safer access to grant payments.

Gungubele said that Postbank’s history of bad audit outcomes also influenced the decision to introduce the new cards.

About 30% of grant beneficiaries are Postbank customers, while the rest use other banking institutions.

Gungubele said there was a concern about what would happen after the 20 March deadline, “but alternatives have been done”.

Postbank officials said this included roving teams in predominantly rural areas, hiring more staff and working with retailers to get recipients their new cards.

Shenaaz Samodien outside the Golden Acre on Tuesday 4 March where she was standing in line to get her Sassa card migrated before the 20 March deadline. (Photo: Suné Payne)

Nandi Manakaza came from Nyanga to migrate her Sassa card. (Photo: Suné Payne)

According to the Postbank presentation, there are about 2,851,898 Postbank customers countrywide. Thus far, 880,266 cards have been issued. There were still 1,971,632 cards that remained to be issued - which meant a 31% completion rate.

In the Western Cape, Postbank had 322,919 customers, with 77,932 cards issued and 244,987 cards remaining. This meant a 24% completion rate.

Postbank officials told the committee that after 20 March, grant recipients who had not been able to migrate would still be able to collect their grants from the South African Post Office as well as withdraw cash from retailers’ till points.

Then, as a contingency measure, recipients would still be able to collect their new black cards until April this year.

‘It’s a nightmare’

Before the meeting in the legislature started, Daily Maverick visited one of the migration centres, the Golden Acre shopping centre in the Cape Town CBD. At 8am, recipients were still in queues waiting for help.

Inside the centre, Daily Maverick saw elderly and wheelchair-bound recipients waiting in a line that ultimately led to two Postbank workers assisting them.

Outside, a queue of about 50 people were waiting.

“It’s a nightmare,” said disability recipient Shenaaz Samodien, who had come from Woodstock along with a friend.

Because they had to leave early to get into a line early, they needed to club together for an Uber, but they had no way to return home.

They were in the middle of the queue but were questioning why Sassa officials could not employ more staff, and extend working hours and open earlier in a bid to get more people helped. Samodien told Daily Maverick that she had hoped for more sites to help, as there were not many.

“It’s very wrong,” she said.

The process, she said, had been frustrating: long waits, numerous trips and knowing that she’d needed to get sorted before going to hospital next week.

The messaging, she added, was confusing: her 81-year-old uncle had tried to switch his card, but he still couldn’t because of the long lines. He did not know about possibly receiving his grant through another bank, but upon finding out was concerned about possible high bank costs.

Read more: Confusion, long queues and technical problems mar switch to new Sassa card

Another recipient with an elderly relative was Nandi Manakaza from Nyanga. She had previously tried to go to the Boxer supermarket in Philippi (one of the designated sites) but turned back at 5am after seeing the already long queues.

She left at 5am to get a taxi from Nyanga to get to the CBD in a bid to get help.

Manakaza said that while it was a problem in Cape Town, she was concerned about her elderly mother who was also a Sassa recipient. She said her mother lived in Umtata in the Eastern Cape and had no access to get to the designated migration station.

“They could do door to door,” said Manakaza, giving solutions about what could be done, especially for elderly residents.

Beneficiaries can apply for and collect their black cards at selected outlets (dial *120*218*3# to check the store closest to you) by simply arriving with their ID documents. DM

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‘It’s a nightmare’