Johannesburg - People who have long been waiting for their post might have to give up the hope of ever getting it, or just wait much longer.
This is after a Post Office worker was seen dumping post in the dustbin.
On Wednesday morning, *Peter was home in Naturena, Joburg, when a white Post Office vehicle stopped in front of his house.
On the streets were rows of dustbins that were yet to be collected.
“A man got out carrying a Post Office bag. He went to one of the dustbins and emptied the bag inside. I went to the dustbin to see what it was that had been dumped there, and found that it was mail,” the 65-year-old said.
Peter informed his neighbour, who came to see for himself. Shortly afterwards, the neighbour saw the same vehicle around the corner and took its registration number.
“The fact that the Post Office staff did this does not sit well with me, because I have not even received my post this year,” he said.
While the South African Post Office has recently been running radio adverts, stating that everything was back to normal following last year’s strike, a picture taken at one of the mail hubs shows the opposite.
A Facebook user posted three pictures showing chaotic piles of mail on top of each other. The man said he had gone there to look for a parcel he had waited two months for.
He said staff members did not stop him from looking for the parcel himself.
“It’s absolute mayhem. I think I might be waiting another six months before getting my parcel,” he wrote.
Another frustrated customer, Firoza Lewis, said she had sent a parcel to her son in Sri Lanka three months ago, and no one knows where it is.
The 51-year-old woman said she had sent a passport, an international driving licence and gifts for her granddaughter on December 10.
As time went by, and the son never received it, Lewis conducted her own investigations to find out what could have happened to it.
“I drove to OR Tambo International Airport, got the tracking number and the SAA flight it was on.
“I even spoke to the post office in Sri Lanka and they confirmed they had never received it.”
The Star has seen e-mails that Lewis exchanged with the Post Office and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa on the issue.
The parcel was later said to have gone missing in France. The French said they would compensate her.
An angry Lewis said that was unacceptable.
“What if someone is using that passport?
“My son could also be deported from Sri Lanka because he needs the passport to renew his visa,” she said.
The Post Office was sent a list of questions. It said the person who was supposed to check whether the response it had drafted was fine and give the go-ahead to send it was in a meeting.
*Not his real name
The Star