GEORGE NEWS - The George Industria Post Office closed down just after the Easter weekend on Wednesday 12 April, making the George Post Office in York Street now the only remaining branch in the city.
All staff from the Industria branch have reportedly gone over to the main post office.
Not long before the closure, George Herald received a complaint from a Wilderness resident, Peter Massyn, about the village not receiving any mail.
"I went to the Industria Post Office to try to find out what was going on, and what an experience! Our mail has been lying there for months. They said that there is no transport to Wilderness. The one official told me that there was overseas mail destined for Cape Town that had been lying there since last year, also because of transport problems. Three postcards that I had mailed in October last year for friends in Germany and England were also there," said Massyn.
South African Post Office (Sapo) spokesperson Suzie Khumalo told the newspaper that they were unable to comment on the closure and service complaints.
Provisional liquidation
The closure of the branch came at about the same time as Sapo being placed under provisional liquidation after a creditor had gone to court to recover rent. In a media release on 13 April, Sapo said the debt relating to the provisional liquidation order had been settled and that its new business turnaround strategy has the support of Government (its only shareholder) through "facilitating" funding of R2,4-billion with National Treasury. This would enable the Post Office to settle some of its historical debt, while implementing its new strategy.
In an earlier statement in February, Sapo announced that it was engaging with unions about reducing the high cost of employment. Salaries made up 68% of its total expenditure. It said Sapo last made a profit in 2004. Its decline was due to various reasons, including the economic recession in 2008.
A protracted strike in 2014 further caused bulk business customers to find alternative service providers, which allowed courier companies to encroach on Sapo's business.
Sapo ended the strike by terminating its agreement with labour brokers and absorbing 8 250 part-time workers, although there were no full-time jobs for them. The result was a bloated structure and increasing costs.
Then the Courier Freight Group, a division of Sapo, collapsed and 708 more employees were absorbed, again increasing costs. "During all this time, letter volumes and revenue declined while costs remained static and sometimes increased," said Sapo.
Long queues as a result of grant payouts were also detrimental to Sapo's other services as customers chose other service providers.
Furthermore, Government obliged Sapo to provide a service to unprofitable areas in the country, which have to be subsidised. During the Covid-19 pandemic Sapo was also not allowed to provide any postal service during the first lockdown stage, forcing more customers to other service providers.
Several other factors are contributing to its decline, including that Government business is not given to Sapo.
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