Residents will no longer receive their municipal bills by post
The decision to suspend the postal option by the Municipality is a direct result of the collapse of the postal service.
Endumeni Municipality has announced that their electricity and rates account statements will no longer be posted, because of the malfunctioning local post offices.
“To obtain your account statements, please go to the municipality and provide your accurate phone number and email address,” the municipality said in a statement to the Courier.
This decision follows the collapse of the post offices in Endumeni and in other areas of Northern KZN.
The Courier reported last week that both the Dundee and Glencoe Post Offices are no longer operational.
The Courier visited both post offices after being bombarded with phone calls from irate readers, complaining that the postal service had come to a grinding halt. A visit to the Glencoe branch gave the impression of an abandoned building. Without having electricity since July – allegedly due to failure to pay for the service – the post office is dark and quiet. The security guard has long abandoned his post at the entrance and there are no personnel behind the counter. One employee was spotted sitting idle in one of the offices, enjoying the sunshine through a window.
Because there is no electricity, the Glencoe post office is unable to provide mail delivery, banking or retail services because it lacks a backup power supply. Even postage stamps and government grants are impossible to obtain.
In Dundee, the door to the main hall is shut. There are also no lights. There are personnel serving at the parcel counter, and some parcels can be collected. The post boxes at the entrance to the building are in a dilapidated condition. The ceilings above the boxes, where customers are supposed to collect mail, are shoddy and broken.
The SA Post Office (SAPO), which received a R2.4 billion bail-out from the government earlier this year, is reported to be R4.4 billion in debt. The department’s draft business rescue plan includes steep staff cuts to reduce the post office’s salary bill, which has far outstripped revenue. Asked to comment on the situation, joint business rescue practitioner Anoosh Rooplal told the Courier that on July 10, the High Court appointed him and Juanito Damons as joint interim business rescue practitioners to supervise the business rescue process.
‘SAPO is financially distressed’
“Our appointments were ratified by 51% of the creditors on July 24 at the first meetings of creditors.” He added that SAPO is financially distressed and unable to honour many of its financial obligations as and when they fall due, and this is why SAPO was placed under ‘business rescue’.
“We have been working with management to address the decline in revenue, generate additional sources of revenue, reduce costs, effect key structural changes in the SAPO business model, and make key investments in technology and infrastructure to drive performance,” explained Rooplal.
He concluded by commenting that the branch network is the cornerstone of this business and to many South Africans, and they are dealing with the branch network as a priority notwithstanding the financial and operational constraints that beset them, together with other pertinent issues. “We are hoping to have some resolve on this matter and the specific branches you mentioned in due course,” he concluded.
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