WC Social Development MEC Londt encouraged by Minister Tolashe's commitment to help province with changeover of SASSA cards
Recipients of SASSA grants need to change from their gold cards to a Postbank black card and the deadline to do this has been extended to March.
Postbank has started introducing a new Black Card for SASSA beneficiaries. Picture supplied by SASSA
CAPE TOWN - Western Cape Social Development MEC Jaco Londt said he was encouraged that his national counterpart would help the province with the changeover of SASSA beneficiary cards.
Recipients of SASSA grants need to change from their gold cards to a Postbank black card and the deadline to do this has been extended to March.
There have been widespread reports of long queues at SASSA offices, as citizens stand in line at the few available sites to do the changeover.
Londt on Friday met with Social Development Minister Nokuzola Tolashe, to discuss how the Western Cape was going to ensure that all beneficiaries made the switch in time.
Londt said that he called for an increase in the number of sites available in the Western Cape.
"I want to make sure that with the commitment of increasing the sites up by 110% nationally, there’s now a commitment of moving it to 543 sites. I said the Western Cape must have 12% of those sites, that means 65 sites for the Western Cape, that means an increase of 49 sites in the Western Cape."
Londt said that he was encouraged that the minister agreed that the province needed more sites.
"Minister Tolashe has given her commitment to take our hands for that. It's also been a cry from the other MECs in the provinces, so that’s incredibly encouraging. And then we just need to make sure that we communicate that to the citizens. I do not see that at the current rate, how the Western Cape can meet the end of March deadline, so unless we get more sites, we will have to get an extension to accommodate the people from the Western Cape."