NATIONAL NEWS - Patricia Saptoe, a 63-year old pensioner, had a total of R90 deducted from her South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) grant of R1 270 in March 2015 without her consent.

The deductions were in 18 tranches of R5 each for prepaid airtime. Two months later, 10 more deductions of a similar amount for airtime were processed from her account.

Sipho Bani, an 89-year old pensioner, faced a similar fate. A total of R4 391 was wrongly deducted from his account without his consent between May 2015 and February 2016. He spent over R400 in an attempt to stop the deductions.

Although Saptoe and Bani have queried the deductions with Sassa and incumbent social grant distributor Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), they have not been reimbursed for the full amounts.

The deducted money may be a pittance for many, but for social grant beneficiaries, who are SA’s most vulnerable citizens, it’s a substantial amount. Saptoe and Bani are among six beneficiaries who have taken their fight against Sassa and the Department of Social Development all the way to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein.

JSE-listed Net1 UEPS, its financial services subsidiaries CPS, Smart Life Insurance and EasyPay, and its banking partner Grindrod have been blamed for the unlawful deductions. Everness Nkosi, a 67-year old pensioner, was allegedly told at a Sassa pay point that she would not receive her social grant if she didn’t open an EasyPay Everywhere (EPE) card to replace the official Sassa card. Nkosi then incurred deductions of R10 every month on the EPE card, which is operated and underwritten by Net1 and Grindrod.

Read more on the Caxton publication, The Citizen.