Grant recipients have been warned that they will not be able to collect their money from Post Office branches on Thursday because of "system glitches", and were urged to use retailers and ATMs instead.

The SA Post Office’s Postbank also said that its customers that wanted to make over-the-counter deposits or withdrawals were affected by the glitches. 

"Withdrawals of social grants can be made at any retail outlets nationwide that provide the cash-back functionality, which includes Shoprite, Checkers, Usave, Pick n Pay and Boxer," Postbank said in a statement. 

"South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) grant recipients can also use the Sassa gold cards to make purchases at any place that accepts bank card transactions as the Sassa gold cards functions fully within the national payments system similarly to any other bank card."

Postbank interim CEO Lucas Ndala apologised for the inconvenience. 

"Our IT teams have been tasked to resolve the technical challenges affecting the over-the-counter branch transactions as a matter of urgency. All customers are advised to utilise retailers and ATMs as alternatives while we are working on retaining full services availability within Post Office branches," Ndala said.