It said the contactless function on the cards, which were issued by the South African Social Security Agency, was abused by people who withdrew more than the limit of R200.

JOHANNESBURG - The South African Post Office said on Thursday it lost R14 million through social grant card fraud since January 2019.

It said the contactless function on the cards, which were issued by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa), was abused by people who withdrew more than the limit of R200.

Last month, Sassa announced that it managed to stop 6,000 fraudulent grant payments in less than a month.

The Post Office said less than 250 Sassa cards that were reported stolen were involved in fraud.

The state-owned entity said while the cards were blocked, illegal transactions continued offline.

The Post Office said the criminal acts had not compromised Sassa or its beneficiaries and several arrests have been made.