Does a sms notification even mean anything?

This is more of a query then anything else. I'm with standard bank and was thinking of moving to capitec until today.

My girlfriend who uses capitec got paid today. She received a sms notification that her salary was deposited into her account.

Now on my side I've had no problem with using my money of card immediately after receiving a notification. But she and I do take responsibility about not checking her account at an atm or online but she received a notice via sms. So I assumed all was good. After work we went for supper and after her card declined we went to the bank again and apparently there was some problem with the transaction and they could not give us the money that was verified by the sms. It would only be available after 3 hours.

So again I ask. Does the sms notification mean anything?