Push to curb grant payment heist risks

EXECUTIVES from the SA Post Office have told Parliament that the spike in the number of robberies at social grant paypoints since the migration of payments calls for other modes of payment.

The executives appeared before the parliamentary portfolio committee on telecoms and postal services to provide an update on grants and other outstanding backlog issues.

Post Office chief operating officer Lindiwe Kwele said: “Cash payments via cash transit remain one of the high-risk issues, and it is expensive. It is unsafe and it is important that we start exploring alternative methods of payment.

“We also need to educate our beneficiaries on why certain options are less unsafe and value for money on their behalf,”added Kwele.

The Post Office has taken over the payment of grants as part of a Constitutional Court judgment issued in 2017, which found the contract between the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) and Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) to be unlawful and invalid‚ and DEPUTY President David Mabuza, right, with Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, has convened a special cabinet committee on Eskom. The committee was established by President Cyril Ramaphosa to deal with challenges of electricity supply disruptions and attendant negative impacts on the economy and the country. The special committee includes the ministers of public enterprises, energy, finance, transport, state security and police. | GCIS