Collapsing Postal Service Leaves Workers Penniless

Dear Editor

The collapsing postal service has left thousands of workers across Dr Beyers Naude Local Municipality (DBNLM) unable to access their government stipends.

Marginalised youth, who are supposedly being empowered through the National Youth Service learnership with the Department of Transport, are instead entering their second month of not being paid for services rendered. Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) workers and Sakisizwe workers have also been unable to receive their stipends.

Why? Because the Post Office in Graaff-Reinet is closed, as is the Post Office in Willowmore. The Jansenville Post Office has been closed because a staff member is off sick, and the Aberdeen Post Office has not been forwarded funds to pay any additional beneficiaries.

The complete and utter breakdown in Post Office services has resulted in these workers being unable to collect their stipends.

These much-needed funds are the only thing keeping these individuals and their families from hunger and abject poverty, and not paying them is tantamount to taking food out of their mouths.

Instead of finding alternative ways to pay these beneficiaries, the ANC’s well-paid cadres at the provincial government, who are responsible for these programmes, have been everything but helpful.

Not one individual seems interested in finding a solution to the problem.

We have escalated this issue to Democratic Alliance (DA) Shadow MEC for Transport, Marshall von Buchenroder MPL, to intervene on behalf of the residents in DBNLM, who will be raising the issue in the Eastern Cape Legislature.

We hope that this intervention will find a speedy resolution to this crisis.

The collapse of the Post Office, coupled with a total lack of foresight or caring from the Department of Transport, means that individuals who have worked cannot access their money to feed their families.

This is the legacy of the ANC. If we are ever to turn this country around, we need to vote in a DA government that cares about the people of South Africa.

Regards

Samantha Graham-Maré MP
Dr Beyers Naude Constituency Leader