Paltry punishment for poultry pluckers

WHITE RIVER – An unsuspecting resident believes he may have stumbled onto the reason the postal service is rather slow these days. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said that he approached the White River Post Office on October 26 last year about opening a post office box.

He had been experiencing several issues with his mail and was on the search for a reliable post office to help him in his quest. A helpful post office employee give him a guided tour of the facility and neither of them could believe their eyes when they opened the door to the sorting room.

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The sight which greeted them could only be described as surreal. The two employees in the sorting room were hard at work. The only problem was that they were not busy sorting the mail. It appears that the two may have had a somewhat entrepreneurial streak, because they were plucking chickens.

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The plucky source snapped a few pictures of the scene and naturally got in touch with senior post office officials to apprise them of the situation. The photos, which are sure to go, well, postal, show the pair with knives in hand and the slaughtered chickens on the table in front of them.

Wasting no time, he contacted the Mpumalanga area manager, Sydney Sithole, to enquire what action was taken against the employees, if regular inspections are conducted on the sorting departments in the province and whether all personnel receive adequate training to ensure that mail is delivered on time.

Additionally, he requested that feedback be provided to set his mind at ease. This has not happened sufficiently and, suspecting foul play, he contacted Lowvelder to investigate whether his recommendations have been implemented. In what was certainly going to be a case of the chickens coming home to roost for the two employees, the South African Post Office suspended them for a month.

This is according to Johan Kruger, from the South African Post Office communications division.

“The employees were suspended without pay for one month and given final written warnings to make them aware of the implication and consequences of such action at work,” he said.

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“Supervision has also been tightened to make sure that unwanted incidents do not occur on the premises of the South African Post Office, and to make sure that service standards are upheld.”

Our source has not opened a post box and has sought the services of a private provider.

“Naturally I haven’t opened a post box, as you can clearly see in the photos, there is a bag with international post on the table. I can assume then that such post is important, but the chicken business received more attention.”