Durban: After decades of service to the Durban North and greater Durban community, the Post Office at Hyper by the Sea will close its doors for good on Tuesday.
The South African Post Office said, "The Hyper by the Sea post office in Durban will close permanently on 23 November 2021. Alternatives are the Durban Main post office and Durban North post office. Our sincere apology for the inconvenience.
There are no reasons given for why the Post Office will be closing.
Last month, the SAPO announced that it was looking at ways of reinventing itself.
Spokesperson Johan Kruger said it was consulting several stakeholders, which include the entity's shareholder, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, employees, management and recognised labour unions to obtain full stakeholder support for the new Post Office of Tomorrow strategy.
"The SA Post Office has been facing financial constraints partly due to restricted business activity resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. While measures taken by the organisation have helped to improve revenue growth, these measures have not restored revenue levels to pre-Covid-19 levels," he said.
Kruger said the SAPO was directing efforts towards improving customer loyalty, which drove revenue growth.
"Several initiatives, such as the back-to-basics campaign aim to address deficiencies in service delivery standards. In April this year, a campaign to clear sorting centre floors reduced the backlog of international items from 2.1 million to zero. The SA Post Office signed delivery agreements with a number of international customers onto its e-Commerce platform. These are Wish.com, Mail Americas and Signature Mail from Malaysia."
Kruger said that as part of renewing the business model, the strategy included the anticipated launch of a mobile app for the renewal of motor vehicle licences online.
The disk could either be collected from a Post Office branch or, for an extra charge, delivered to an office or work address.
"As a responsible corporate citizen, the SA Post Office remains committed to its government mandate and universal service obligation as it continues to improve services to the South African public. The modernisation of the postal network ensures that the SA Post Office continues to be a strategic contributor the socio-economic development of South Africa. This would allow for more government services to be available at postal outlets," he said.
IOL