The Portfolio Committee on Social Development and the Portfolio Committee on Communication and Digital Technologies on Wednesday welcomed news that all social grant recipients will continue to receive their grants beyond the new deadline for card replacements.

Last month, South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) and Postbank announced that social grant recipients must replace their Sassa gold cards with the Postbank’s Black Cards, with a deadline of February 28.

The deadline was later extended to March 20.

The committees raised serious concern about the way in which the project was conceptualised and managed, saying that communication was inadequate.

They also expressed displeasure about the inconvenience beneficiaries suffered owing to the long queues and slow services, calling on the Postbank to redouble its efforts to ensure that all beneficiaries were treated with dignity and were helped expeditiously.

“… those without Black Cards after the new deadline will only receive their grants at their nearest branches of the South African Post Office, because the Gold Card will be deactivated,” said the committees.

The committees advised the Postbank and Sassa to work closely with the Government Communications and Information System to leverage its communication network and specialised competency.

To address the challenge of long queues, the committees called for the introduction of additional service points in the form of mobile offices in rural areas where beneficiaries will be assisted speedily, without relying solely on retail stores often located at big shopping centres and malls.