SASSA’s Postbank split leaves a man scrambling for his money
· The South African
Moses Xaba is not the kind of man who misses things. For five years, the 58-year-old has arrived at his SASSA collection point every month without fail, collecting his disability grant, feeding his family, keeping the routine intact.
May taught him that even the most reliable systems can shift without warning.
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Xaba arrived at Postbank, Kloof, in May, as he always does. But this time, there was no payment waiting. Postbank announced through news outlets that it would no longer process SASSA grant payments. Xaba, like many beneficiaries who don’t closely follow financial news, had missed it entirely.
“I didn’t know,” he says. “I didn’t see anything about it.”
He left the queue with a voucher in hand and instructions to visit the SASSA office to switch his payment to a bank account. An inconvenience for anyone. A serious disruption for someone stretching a disability grant across an entire household.
A smooth SASSA road after a rough start
What could have spiralled into a bureaucratic nightmare didn’t. At the SASSA office, staff walked him through the migration calmly and efficiently. The process was straightforward, and come June, his payment landed without a hitch.
“It went well at SASSA,” Xaba says. “They helped me.”
His relief is genuine, but it sits alongside a wider concern that his experience exposes. Postbank’s announcement existed. It circulated. But circulation and reach are two different things, and for grant recipients without consistent internet access or who don’t consume daily news, the gap between the two can cost an entire month’s income.
The ask that outlasts the crisis
Now that his payments are back on track, Xaba has one message for government that has nothing to do with Postbank.
“Things are expensive now, food, transport, everything. I would appreciate it if the government could increase the grant.”
He takes care of his family with the R2 400 he receives monthly. In a country where inflation keeps climbing, that amount buys a little less with every passing month.
The system sorted itself out for Moses Xaba. His question now is whether the system will ever truly sort itself out for people like him.