Postbank to resume black card rollout in April

About 600,000 remaining SASSA gold cardholders will be called to swap to Postbank’s black cards in order to continue receiving their social grants. Image supplied by Postbank

Postbank will resume the rollout of its black cards from mid-April, continuing efforts to replace South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) gold cards.

In a statement, the government said approximately 1.5-million social grant beneficiaries had been issued black cards by 31 March 2025.

The rollout will continue, running from mid-April to July 2026. About 600,000 remaining gold cardholders will be called to swap to Postbank’s black cards in order to continue receiving their social grants.

The rollout follows the formal licensing of Postbank as a Financial Services Provider by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority. This forms part of efforts to build Postbank into a “sustainable and well-governed state-owned retail bank” after its separation from the South African Post Office in 2019, the statement said.

The switch to black cards was required after a 2021 cryptographic breach compromised the security key used to issue SASSA gold cards. Postbank was issued notices by the South African Reserve Bank in 2021, 2022 and 2023 to replace all SASSA gold cards with the new black cards, which have improved security features.

However, a coordinated rollout only began in 2024, when Postbank launched a campaign to swap the cards ahead of a March 2025 deadline. In early 2025, Postbank attempted to migrate millions of beneficiaries, but only about half had switched by the deadline.

The rollout was marked by confusion and repeated deadline changes. The process was widely criticised for being slow and difficult. Beneficiaries were required to switch within a short period, leading to long queues. System failures meant the rollout struggled to keep pace with demand.

Meanwhile, a series of events has contributed to a decline in the number of social grant beneficiaries using Postbank, with many turning to private banks. Figures show that Postbank’s client base dropped from about 8.2-million in June 2020 to 2-million by June 2025, a 75% drop.

Since at least 2022, customers have experienced periodic payment delays due to cyberattacks and other technical issues.

Postbank, SASSA and other government entities are expected to work together over the coming months to reach the remaining beneficiaries still using the gold card.

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