Net1 UEPS Technologies says its subsidiary Cash Paymaster Services' (CPS') commitment to social grant recipients resulted in uninterrupted delivery of April payments.
In a SENS statement, the alternative payment systems provider announced CPS ensured uninterrupted service delivery to SA's 10.6 million social grant recipients for the April pay-cycle.
The Net1 statement says: "As at the close of business on 3 April 2017, 6.8 million of these recipients had already accessed their grants via the National Payment System or pay points, with a total aggregate value of approximately R7.8 billion processed.
"CPS processed a record 535 000 transactions per hour on 1 April 2017, without any service interruption or degradation.
"CPS expects to complete the April 2017 pay-cycle in accordance with SASSA's [SA Social Security Agency's] prescribed timetable."
CPS has been the sole paymaster of social grants since it was awarded the payments tender in 2012. This payment process of 17 million South African citizens was threatened following government's failure to find a suitable payments provider when the invalid contract expired.
The contract was declared invalid in 2013, but the Constitutional Court suspended the invalidity declaration pending the contract's expiration at the end of March.
To avert a situation that threatened the livelihoods of the most vulnerable citizens, the highest court granted the extension of the invalid contract last month.
During the protracted social grant saga, Serge Belamant, Net1 chairman and CEO, caught some flak for his comments in the media. The Net1 board of directors later issued a statement apologising for any comments made by CPS that were perceived as offensive.
This week, SASSA officials and social development minister Bathabile Dlamini visited various pay point centres to ensure payment of the majority of social grants recipients was conducted without any hiccups.
Social grant payments for this new cycle began on 1 April and are planned to run until 21 April.
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