Question NW3065 to the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies
11 December 2023 - NW3065
Abrahams, Ms ALA to ask the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies
(1)What (a) number of the SA Social Security Agency (SASSA) beneficiaries were adversely affected by the payment glitch in the period 5 to 8 September 2023 in each (i) province and (ii) grant category, (b) what were the root causes of the payment glitch and (c) what measures has the Postbank put in place to ensure that payment glitches do not occur again; (2) whether the payment glitch was due to a lack of funds within the SASSA account; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details; (3) whether any fraudulent activity was detected during the specified period; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details; (4) what training is provided to retailer staff to better equip them to respond to SASSA beneficiaries; (5) whether the Postbank has access to bulk SMS to communicate with beneficiaries when payment glitches arise; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
(1)(a) Only 10% of 5.3 million beneficiaries that are paid by Postbank were impacted.
(i) The glitch impacted beneficiaries across all provinces nationally (10% of 5.3 million beneficiaries that are paid via Postbank).
(ii) The glitch impacted elderly beneficiaries that were supposed to receive their grant payments during that period.
(1)(b) The IT challenges were due to post migration issues relating to different factors. These include time cuts due to communication capacity between different systems. The issue was resolved on the same day (5 September 2023) at 4 pm and since then the system has been stable.
(1)(c) The Postbank has implemented the following measures in relation to the October 2023 social grants payments preparations:-
- Enhanced monitoring mechanisms to track the payment process in real-time.
- Strengthened its technical infrastructure to handle higher transaction volumes, ensuring swift and uninterrupted disbursements.
- Engaged specialists for a comprehensive review of the system and to continuously rectify any vulnerabilities.
The new payments system was tested in accordance with acceptable industry system testing protocols including Component Integration Testing (CIT), System Integration Testing (SIT) and Industry Testing prior to the system going live.
2. No. The IT challenges did not affect the depositing of funds to any beneficiaries’ accounts but rather impacted the withdrawal ability of funds for some beneficiaries.
3. No fraudulent activity has been identified and/or reported to date.
4. As part of the retailer onboarding process, retailers received training and training manuals regarding the withdrawal process. Additionally, they provide ongoing training to their employees through their training centres countrywide on customer care, query escalation and withdrawals using merchant points of sale.
5. The Postbank has the capability to provide bulk SMS which will be utilised to provide beneficiaries with information in the event the Postbank has payment challenges. However, the Postbank was unable to utilise it at the time as it did not have updated cell phone details of most social grant recipients.
Thank you.