With days remaining before the August 31, 2026 deadline for SASSA grant beneficiaries to replace their legacy gold cards with new Postbank black cards, approximately 100,000 people nationwide have yet to complete the migration..
The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) has urged grant beneficiaries to complete the replacement process before the deadline or risk disruption to their grant payments. There have already been several deadline extensions since early 2025.
According to Postbank, grants will be paid out in the September payment run but beneficiaries without the Postbank cards will not be able to access their funds.
The migration process has not been without glitches. In some parts of the country, there have been isolated incidents where beneficiaries were turned away because of the unavailability of the Postbank black cards.
One such case was in Pinetown at a Postbank helpdesk at Spar, on August 14, 2026, where scores of beneficiaries were turned away because there were no black cards.
Asanda Didi, from Clermont in KwaZulu-Natal, said she had been to the Spar at Pinetown twice before finally receiving assistance on Tuesday, resulting in her missing three days of work.
She has three children who are receiving the child support grant.
“The staff told us we can go to Chatsworth, where there are cards, but for me and others this was not an option because we did not have enough money for transport,” she said.
Evashnee Naidu, Black Sash regional manager for KwaZulu-Natal, said beneficiaries needed to be aware of the differences between swapping a gold card for a Postbank black card and moving their grant to a private commercial bank account.
Naidu added that with a Postbank card, the update happens automatically.
“You go into a Postbank branch or any participating retailer, such as Shoprite, Checkers, Usave, Pick n Pay, Boxer, and Spar, with your Gold Card and ID, and Postbank will upload the change onto the system and alert SASSA that you have changed your method of payment,” she said.
However, if a beneficiary chooses to move their grant to any other bank account in their own name, it requires a SASSA Annexure C (change of payment method) form to be completed and stamped by the bank of your choice, and must be submitted in person at a SASSA office.
She further stated that the Annexure C form must reach SASSA before the 20th of the month for the change of bank to take effect in the following payment cycle; and that forms submitted after that date may take two payment cycles to reflect.
“For example, if I sent in my form on the 31st of July in the August pay cycle, it will go back into my SASSA card, and only in the September cycle would it reflect in my bank account. Forms submitted after the 20th take two full payment cycles to process, not one,” she said.
Thami Cele, Chief Commercial Officer at Postbank, said more than 70 percent of targeted beneficiaries have migrated to the new cards.
Cele added that approximately 100,000 beneficiaries still need to get their black cards across the country.
“The beneficiaries have joined the more than 1.5 million people that obtained their black cards by 31 March 2025. Postbank is positive that we will be able to issue cards to the remaining group of beneficiaries before the deadline (31 August 2026), and we have ensured that we have built the operational readiness for this,” he said.
He further assured beneficiaries that Postbank has sufficient card stock nationally for every beneficiary to be issued with a black card.
“All our sites are well stocked with cards, which are being issued daily. On Friday, a few of our sites experienced isolated incidents where, due to courier operations shortfall, batches of cards destined for some sites were erroneously delivered to incorrect sites, but these were resolved, and we can confirm that all our sites have correct card batches and sufficient stocks,” Cele said.
He stated that the SASSA gold cards will not work for transactions after the cut-off deadline. However, beneficiaries’ payments will not stop; they will continue being made into their accounts.
“The (beneficiaries’) money will remain safe in the accounts and accessible only once a beneficiary has obtained a black card. Thus, beneficiaries will first need to obtain a black card before they access,” Cele said.
Asked about plans to assist beneficiaries who had gone to different sites and found no cards last week, he said: “Postbank will ensure that most of the card replacement sites remain open and operational after 31 August to service any beneficiaries that may have missed obtaining their cards on time.”
gcwalisile.khanyile@nationalmg.co.za