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Thousands of residents across the Western Cape
have experienced deductions from their Sassa grants, and last week Mitchell’s
Plain residents demanded to know why.
Local ward councillor Solomon Philander, who called the meeting
between beneficiaries and officials, said: “This is not political. Tonight we
want answers and everyone must leave knowing the way forward.”
About 80 residents from Mitchell’s Plain were present on Monday
last week.
Philander was recently at a meeting with some of the beneficiaries
and says they all had similar complaints.
Some of the other complaints are about cards, waiting for
reimbursements, getting paid out less than expected for months at a time and
Sassa officials who are not able to help.
In some cases there were insufficient staff to help the
beneficiaries at the time of the visit.
Henry Degra, general manager of Sassa grants administration, said
they were aware of the deductions.
“We have heard what the councillor has said and taken note of your
concerns. This matter is not only a problem in the Western Cape but in the whole
country,” he said.
Degra explains the move to the Sassa cards opened the system up to
fraud and crime.
“I’m sure everyone liked the Allpay system – we had problems but
not these problems. There were long lines but everyone got all of their money.
Of course there were still robberies,” he explained.
“With the new cards we gave 10m people access to the banking
sector, but with that we opened it up to fraud.”
In response to alleged fraudulent electricity and airtime
deductions in most cases, Degra said there were two ways to look at it.
“There are two groups, those who have authorised deductions and
those who have not. According to the law, the only deduction allowed on a Sassa
card is a funeral plan,” he said.
Degra continued that many people give their PIN numbers and cards
to loan sharks and then reported cases of stolen cards to evade them.
Another explanation was that residents could have left their cards
and ID documents in the hands of others who could have bought the airtime and
used it without the beneficiaries’ consent.
He added that residents who have experienced deductions should
still follow steps to have their money refunded.
“We need residents to report it to us. We pay the money over to a
company and they pay it to the beneficiaries. Sassa is not aware of the
deductions and if we look on the system we cannot see deductions,” he
said.
Firstly, residents should give a statement that they have had
unauthorised deductions. This must be accompanied by a slip that shows the
deductions.
The beneficiary will then be required to fill in a dispute
resolution mechanism form that will be submitted to Sassa head office.
Refunds should take no longer than one month, Degra says.
Swallowed cards
As far as swallowed bank cards,
Busisiwe Letompa, Sassa senior manager for payment in the region, explained the
majority of these cards had been reported missing, stolen or that deductions
were made.
“We are asking you to change your PIN numbers if you have had
illegal deductions,” she said. She added 8000 people have been requested to
change their PIN numbers.
Another scam to be aware of is food parcels, Letompa says. Sassa
officials would never contact residents about food hampers. Degra said Sassa
officials would also not visit any beneficiary at home unless requested to do
so.
Degra added they are not afraid to prosecute any of their own staff
found to be behind fraud.
Letompa said residents who have seen deductions of less than R20
would not be refunded as these are bank and withdrawal fees.
“We have an agreement that you can draw money at the merchants, but
some Pick n Pays will charge you - especially the family stores - because they
are not part of the agreement,” she says.
Black Sash representative Elroy Paulus said they should be looking
at tender company Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) who are responsible for the
distribution of grant payments.
“CPS is owned by Net1. They are a mother company with many other
smaller companies. Some of the deductions have been charged by other companies
they own,” he said.
Net1 CEO Dr Serge Belamant told People’s Post: “Any
account holder can make a purchase using his card and these transactions are
effected as sales and not deductions. All other deductions, like debit orders,
are processed through the system owned by the banks.
“Any company can submit a debit order as long as it is approved by
the account holder. This facility is part of the South African banking system.
“As Net1 we have gone a little further, as we ask account holders
to approve any debit orders using biometric verification rather than PIN
presentation. This has eliminated all fraud on our debit orders that are used
for the repayment of loans or the collection of insurance premiums. Net1 has
offered the system to anyone that wished to make use of this secure means of
transacting, thus protecting the account holders in totality.”
He further explains CPS is a 100%-owned subsidiary of Net1.
The fundamental requirement of CPS’s service to Sassa is to provide
a payment system that can make use of the national infrastructure or those
operated by all South African banks.
Because of demand from account holders, Net1 developed a mobile
channel through which account holders could purchase many products and services,
such as airtime, electricity, loan finance, insurance, statements and other
useful information. Beneficiaries need to register with the mobile service
before they can transact.
This registration requires grant account holders to enter their ID
number, last 4 digits of their card as well as their PIN number.
It has always been at the grant recipient’s discretion to register
with the Manje services and to date, more than 5m customers make use of this
facility, says Belamant.
