Share

Small businesses lament postal service collapse

Cape Town - The disruption of operations at the SA Post Office (Sapo) is having wide-ranging impacts on small businesses, many of whom are in the start-up phase of their enterprise.

Sapo’s woes have surfaced amid its attempts to recover from a crippling 2014 strike action in which infrastructural damages to the value of R4.3m was recorded.

READ: Costs of violent Post Office strike hit R4.3m

In March Fin24 published images showing a chaotic Johannesburg International Mail Centre (JIMC), with heaps of unprocessed mail packages.   

READ: Post Office agony worsens with mail room woes

Fin24 user and small business owner Gil Chivas has expressed his sense of deep frustration and despair at the operations of the Post Office with regards to inbound goods.

“I am a budding entrepreneur who recently started a business that deeply relies on the efficient operation of the post office system - it has been nothing but mayhem and chronic headaches since October last year when I began using the post office as a medium for the delivery of my goods.

"We cannot project efficiently and plan for the near future given the current failure of the postal system in ensuring packages exit OR Tambo Hub. We are currently awaiting 10 packages that were shipped in January 2015,” he said.

According to Chivas his business received packages last month that seemingly made it to the local post office in spite of not having been allocated local tracking numbers. Yet the post office insisted that they had not entered the country at all.

“Clearly someone is sleeping on the job and this cannot continue to be received as acceptable. I suggest the post office opens a counter at OR Tambo international hub where customers can at the least access their goods while they deal with their own in-house inefficiencies,” he said.

Customers talking to each other

Dave Coates depends on the Sapo and Customs to process online orders and is seriously considering closing down this section of his business. “This will mean the loss of a job as I employ someone to exclusively handle this,” he said.

“We spend so much time apologising to customers and trying to track the parcels and replacing lost parcels and then also making alternative arrangements it's just not really worth it anymore.”

Pieter Viljoen from Bethlehem has had to make multiple 600km trips (including e-tolls) to the hub after receiving confirmation that a business parcel arrived in SA, only to be told that the parcel is not there because it has not been scanned into the system.

Viljoen says his customers don’t believe him anymore and are threatening to sue him for lost costs. He continues to lose business as his customers are talking to each other and are avoiding his business. “Monthly losses of over R50 000 are taking place.”

Small business owner, Andrew Barnes, has resorted to using Postnet to keep the cogs of his small enterprise turning. Barnes manufactures a range of athletic sandals which he sells across the world.

READ: Who really needs the Post Office anyway?

“They [Postnet] have a twice weekly Royal Mail service. The bag goes from SA to London and all the parcels are then sent from London using Royal Mail. And so I now send to the States, Australia, etc via London,” he said.

“It costs more and some customers have resisted the higher charges so I am doing less but at least the bit that I do works well!”

Will Reuter, who sells goods online locally and internationally, says “the strike has almost broken me”. “The goods I sell are low value items, with low mark-ups. Because of the low values I cannot afford to send orders with couriers, which are considerably more expensive than the post office,” he said.

“Even a cheap special from Postnet was R100 [Postnet to Postnet] which is more than double what the post office charges. To compound the problem, smaller centres such as Stilbaai are 70km away from the nearest Postnet, which incurs more expense.

"I also import raw materials and tooling using the post office. If that setup was closed, how would I receive goods? How can I explain to the foreigners that the country I live in can’t run a postal system? Can they send it some other way, like with a carrier pigeon?”

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Rand - Dollar
18.92
+0.1%
Rand - Pound
23.87
+0.2%
Rand - Euro
20.39
+0.2%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.32
+0.1%
Rand - Yen
0.13
+0.1%
Platinum
908.05
0.0%
Palladium
1,014.94
0.0%
Gold
2,232.75
-0.0%
Silver
24.95
-0.1%
Brent Crude
87.00
+1.8%
Top 40
68,346
0.0%
All Share
74,536
0.0%
Resource 10
57,251
0.0%
Industrial 25
103,936
0.0%
Financial 15
16,502
0.0%
All JSE data delayed by at least 15 minutes Iress logo
Company Snapshot
Editorial feedback and complaints

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.

LEARN MORE
Government tenders

Find public sector tender opportunities in South Africa here.

Government tenders
This portal provides access to information on all tenders made by all public sector organisations in all spheres of government.
Browse tenders