How red tape and missed chances sank the SA Post Office

The evolution of the post office, run by the department of telecommunications and postal services, into the SA Post Office (Sapo) and Telkom must be one of the truest bellwethers of how much has changed in the country. It is deeply ironic a state monopoly such as it could survive the incredible disruption of cellular telephony as Telkom, yet fail as theSapo. Granted, people stopped sending letters but the rise of e-commerce, especially, would have been a wonderful, heaven-sent, revenue.

Alas, it was not to be and instead we have more courier companies; small, micro and mega, all taking parcels from one place to the other. There are even retailers offering shop-to-shop deliveries, exploiting their incredible geographic presence as the post office had. But that, too, is slipping.

Many post office branches we once had are closing or cutting the services they offer. Over and above e-commerce, there’s also the role the Sapo could have played as a customer centre for government services like renewing your car licence. They have to arrive with renewal forms downloaded and pre-printed as well as a copy of their driver’s licence/ID card, to say nothing of cash – or a physical bank card, because Sapo’s technology doesn’t allow for virtual.

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If you’ve filled out your forms, but didn’t print out your own copy of your ID, you can’t e-mail a copy from your phone because they don’t have printers. But you can go to a print shop nearby to have your needs seen to. Many of these little shops can do your car licence renewal for you too, for a small surcharge.

It’s tempting to imagine Sapo as an institution that was left to fail by an uncaring government. But that would ignore the billions in bailouts over the years and the minted opportunity to distribute social grants. None of it worked.

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