SARB grants Postbank another extension for grant beneficiaries to use old gold cards

CAPE TOWN - The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has granted the Postbank another extension to allow social grant recipients to continue using the old gold cards.

The cards will now be valid until 31 May.

Social Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe announced the move and said the extension was granted after negotiations with the central bank.

Tolashe was responding to oral questions on social grants in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) as part of the social services cluster on Tuesday.

Time had run out for the Postbank to migrate all social grant recipients to the new black card by 20 March, when the gold cards were to stop working at midnight.

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But Minister Tolashe has told the NCOP that after intervening and speaking directly to the SARB, the Postbank has now been granted another extension to get its house in order.

"The South African Reserve Bank has given an instruction to Postbank to ensure that the gold card remains active and that Postbank must honour all transactions on these cards until they are replaced."

She added that the cards were compromised by the Postbank, and the SARB can’t maintain them for an indefinite period.

Tolashe says if the PostBank fails to migrate all beneficiaries in a reasonable time, their clients will be moved to another bank.