Cape Town - The South African Post Office (Sapo) has rubbished rumours about the closures of 144 of its branches nationwide.
This comes after reports surfaced branches were closed with immediate effect without notice.
However, speaking to IOL, SAPO spokesperson Johan Kruger said that the information was not correct.
“The SA Post Office can confirm that it has 1200 branches countrywide that are open and trading - and that it delivers roughly one million mail items per day countrywide.
“That said, the SA Post Office is in the final stages of rationalising its branch network, where branches in urban areas within 5 km of each other were merged. Branches in rural areas are not considered for merging,” Kruger said.
While the rumours had grant beneficiaries of the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) in panic, Kruger has confirmed that grant beneficiaries can continue to withdraw their grants at any post office and any supermarket without any fee.
“They can also withdraw their grant from an ATM, in which case the bank will charge a service fee.
“The collection point for SRD grants was moved from post offices to supermarkets in March this year after research showed that 97% of recipients spend the entire grant at supermarkets, so it made sense to move the collection point to the point where the beneficiaries use the grant,” Kruger added.
Earlier this week, Daily News reported the financial woes of the SAPO were revealed in its annual reports for 2022.
It said the SAPO reported a net loss for the period under review of R2.2 billion despite a revenue increase of R6 million. The operational reports stated there was a mail delivery performance improvement from 52.95% to 68.36%.
The publication stated that SAPO consolidated and merged urban non-performing branches with better performing outlets, saw the closure of 146 branches nationwide, of which 55 were amalgamated.
The logistics fleet was reduced from 1 236 to 366 vehicles, requiring a national line haul to run on 18 routes.
Speaking to Daily News, SAPO chief executive officer Nomkhita Mona said they had been severely impacted by the Covid-19 lockdown, associated business slowdown, and the increased rate of digital migration.
Mona told the publication that suppliers were not paid and had withdrawn services, further impacting revenue generation.