Fears over post office no longer paying R350 grant

THE post office will no longer pay out the R350 Social Relief of Distress Grant and activists, and politicians have expressed fears that this could cause further hardship to thousands of people.

South African Post Office (Sapo) spokesperson Johan Kruger said the idea behind the development was to move the payments to the point where the beneficiaries use their grant.

“We found that beneficiaries come to the post office to collect and use the grant at a grocery store. This saves them time and transport money.”

Kruger said beneficiaries had many choices available to them, such as having the grant paid into a bank account, receiving it through a cash send transaction at an ATM, or collecting it from a supermarket.

He said the post office at this stage did not plan to reintroduce the payments at its branches, but Sassa beneficiaries who receive old age, disability or child grants could still collect them from any post office branch.

Provincial ANC social development spokesperson Gladys Bakubaku-Vos said although the ANC welcomed the initiative to expand the pay points for the grants, which now included retailers, it was concerned that many beneficiaries would be negatively affected.

“Especially those from communities where there are no nearby shopping centres where these retailers can be found. We ask the national government to rethink this decision.”

DA national social development spokesperson Bridget Masango said the insistence by Sapo that its decision to stop paying the grant at its branches would alleviate long queues was not good enough. |