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In case you believe that the whole country is going to hell in a hand basket, and national enterprise is destined for absolute failure, think about the South African Post Office.

I can’t speak for its profitability, but then again the U.S. Mail is a loss leader for that country, and the UK’s service is on perpetual strike (and we had one just a short while ago…) – it must be said that our post office keeps on trucking pretty well.

I’m about to move, and the services that the post office have are consistent with what you’d expect from a first world service. Checking out ‘Easy move checklists’ online, the one recommendation was to go down to the U.S. mail and get them to simply forward your mail. I considered this an unlikely option for poor old SAPO – but nay, they do indeed have a change of address service, and its VERY reasonable – as are the post boxes which I’m going to be leasing shortly to save myself the hassle of changing addresses when I move.

The Post Office is Canal Walk is open till 9 each night, and I’ve picked up many a parcel there (Unisa and otherwise) with very little hassle – certainly less hassle and with far better service than I have received from many of the anchor tenants at the mall – Yes, I’m talking about you, incompetent, lazy and rude Edgars and Woolworths staff.

Go to any dorp in the country, and you will find a post office. It makes you wonder why they don’t get the Home Affairs (except refugee services) contract, so that South Africans can simply get their birth certificates, IDs etc from the Post Office.

Yes, you’ll queue from time to time in the Post Office – but certainly no worse than the bank.

Speaking of banks, millions of South Africans use the PostBank. It always seemed like the place where grannies banked, but the PostBank has some of the most affordable banking options available, and provide a valuable low cost banking framework for millions of South Africans without the exploitative lending environment that pervades most modern retail banking agencies – the PostBank is for banking, not lending – although I believe there are attempts to change that.

Overall I’m pretty glad that our Post Office continues to operate as well as it does, especially under the strain that post offices are operating under globally. It continues to offer a good service, and a letter I sent in CT can end in Joburg the next day with regular mail. I think that is a good service considering the distance.

That is not to say things are perfect. Theft remains an issue, especially with packages that come in from overseas.This is sad, and sees many overseas retailers refusing to use our postal services. I am quite sure this is a case of a few rotten eggs in the system – that should be corrected.

But overall I’m psych’d by our post office – crazy, and geeky I know – but when everyone else is whinging we should remember the little things that keep our country the greatest in Africa.

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Filed under: Africa, Business, Economy, Government, Language by Andrew la Grange