Atteridgeville post office open for business
"It was extremely tough for us residents because we do various things at the post office, such as license disk renewals, paying municipality bills and receiving our parcels," said Moeng.
A security official with a shotgun was standing guard at the Atteridgeville post office, which was doing business as usual on Wednesday amid an ongoing strike.
Atteridgeville resident Johanness Moeng told Rekord it had been a torrid 14 weeks for the area because of an extended SA Post Office strike.
“It was extremely tough for us because we do various things at the post office, such as licence disk renewals, paying municipality bills and receiving parcels.”
Moeng said most of the elderly people in the area relied on the post office to receive their monthly pension grant.
“Most elderly people avoid long queues at banks and pay points so they get paid their monthly pension grant at the post office because the service is quicker and there are no long queues,” Moeng said.
Another resident, Thomas Shikwane, said the striking post office workers did not know what they wanted.
“They really don’t know what they want. Will they rather stay at home and starve than come to work and get paid? It is the festive season now and children want Christmas clothes, and new school uniform for the coming year has to be bought.”
Inside the post office, there were several customers who came to collect parcels or to bank money.
Said elderly resident Salamina Nthite: “My parcels have been here all this time and I could not fetch them because of the strike, so we thank the staff for finally opening the doors of this post office for us to receive the services it offers.”
She said she felt protected, especially with the guard with a firearm outside the post office.
“I heard people tried to burn this post office down, so it is comforting to see there is protection.”
In October eight men entered the post office and hurled petrol bombs inside that damaged the counter. No one was injured or arrested.
The pay strike by post office workers began in August and was continuing this week.
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Also read: Strike leads to closure of post offices
Postal strike enters eleventh week
Post Office in urgent talks with employees
