POSTBANK-SASSA: SARB’s 4th DESIGNATED CLEARING SYSTEM PARTICIPANT VARIATION NOTICE UNPACKED

POSTBANK-SASSA: SARB’s 4th DESIGNATED CLEARING SYSTEM PARTICIPANT VARIATION NOTICE UNPACKED

• 02 September 2025
• Social Development
• SA Legal Academy

The South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB’s) recently gazetted fourth variation notice on the Postbank’s status as a designated clearing system participant includes its implications for South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) grant recipients receiving their payments through the Postbank. However, the variation makes no reference to the imminent expiry of SASSA’s master service agreement with the Postbank, which was the focus of a National Assembly Social Development Committee meeting on 27 August 2025. The SARB’s fourth variation notice was published two days later.

According to a Department of Social Development presentation document circulated during the meeting, SASSA’s agreement with the Postbank followed a series of 2017/18 Constitutional Court rulings on SASSA’s long since terminaed arrangement with Cash Paymaster Services. A Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG) report on the meeting notes that the Court ‘had directed SASSA to assume full responsibility for social grant distribution, but at the time, the agency lacked the necessary infrastructure and expertise. This had led to a partnership with the (South African) Post Office (SAPO) to ensure grant payments while SASSA developed capacity, later evolving into the Postbank arrangement under a master service agreement … authorised by National Treasury’.

Apparently, SASSA notified the Postbank in March 2024 of its intention to terminate the agreement ‘at the end of September 2025’ – which Social Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe assured committee members ‘would not disrupt the payment of social grants’ (PMG). This is reflected in a media statement issued by the committee. SASSA has since issued a media statement on the matter.

In that context, the presentation document refers to:

• SAPO’s introduction of ‘SASSA branded’ cards (presumably taken over by the Postbank, and allowing grant recipients to receive their monthly payments without opening accounts), and
• the SARB’s decision in 2019 requiring the Postbank to ‘replace their gold cards’ before ‘issuing new bank accounts’.

According to the SARB’s fourth variation notice:

• among other things, its third variation notice had required the Postbank to replace all SASSA gold cards with Postbank black cards before 31 March 2025, and
• the Postbank was unable to meet this deadline.

Against that backdrop, in the best interests of SASSA grant beneficiaries the SARB’s fourth variation notice:

• extends by 15 months the deadline by which all SASSA gold cards held by Postbank clients or used by grant beneficiaries to draw their monthly payments should be replaced with the most recent version of the Postbank black card, and
• includes several other requirements regarding:
  • lost SASSA gold cards, and
  • Postbank clients/users whose SASSA gold cards have already been replaced with the original Postbank black card.

Nevertheless, most of the fourth variation notice focuses on technical issues to be addressed in the context of the Postbank’s status as a designated clearing system participant – and with ‘the safety, integrity, effectiveness and efficiency of the national payment system’ in mind, as well as the ‘public interest’.

The National Assembly committee has since been briefed by the SARB, whose presentation document clearly communicates the gist of its most recent variation notice in the context of SASSA grant payements. 

• SARB fourth variation notice
• Department of Social Development presentation document
• National Assembly committee media statement
• PMG report
• SASSA media statement
• SARB presentation document

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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