Pretoria – Postbank says it has fully restored ATM access for social grant beneficiaries a day after the system experienced a glitch.
The glitch prevented South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) withdrawals on Tuesday.
“This means that SASSA customers using the Postbank SASSA Gold Cards can now immediately access their social grants money via ATMs and Post Office branches,” said Dr. Bongani Diako, Postbank spokesperson on Wednesday.
“SASSA social grants customers using Postbank SASSA Gold Cards and all stakeholders are advised that the technical difficulty that intermittently affected SASSA grants customers’ ability to perform withdrawals yesterday has been resolved for all ATM and Post Office branch transactions.”
Dr. Diako said the processing of the reversals of funds debited on the accounts that declined since yesterday due to a system error was underway.
“Beneficiaries that have attempted withdrawals since yesterday are urged to give this process some time before attempting any further transactions,” said Dr. Diako.
“It is anticipated that the funds will be reversed into all beneficiaries’ accounts approximately in the next 24 hours.”
Dr. Diako said Postbank’s technical teams are working on restoring the transactions inside the retailers to full capacity as there are still intermittent challenges with transactions performed through this channel.
“We apologise to our valued customers for the inconvenience caused by this incident and thank them for their patience. Postbank will continue providing detailed updates,” said Dr. Diako.
“Social grants recipients are also advised that the technical challenges experienced with grants withdrawals since yesterday are an isolated incident that is not related to the validity of the Postbank SASSA Gold Cards.
“SASSA Gold Cards remain valid as a means of accessing social grants payments despite the expiry date written on the cards until Postbank replaces the cards within the cards replacement period granted to us by the Reserve Bank.”
