Controversy over the Post Office’s role in social grant payments

PhD student Lena Gronbach has published on GroundUp a stinging commentary on social grant payments through the Post Office. Following the scandal over Net1/CPS, the contract to pay social grants was handed to the Post Office rather than commercial banks, in what appears to have been a political decision. It turns out that the Post Office’s business model is not too different from that of Net1/CPS in that it aims to use grant payments to establish itself as a provider of financial services – and particularly credit – to poor people. Nor has the appointment of the Post Office solved the problem of unauthorised deductions and misuse of beneficiaries’ personal data. This latest payment scandal again highlights SASSA’s inability to manage properly South Africa’s social grant system.