Wierda Park Post Office back online, services resume after two-week power outage
Residents have been assured that no parcels would have been returned during the outage as surrounding branches were used to notify customers of the whereabouts of their items.
After a frustrating two-week power outage, the electricity at Wierda Park Post Office in Centurion has finally been restored, allowing it to resume essential services for residents.
The outage began on October 22 and severely impacted the post office’s ability to operate, which left many customers unable to access their parcels and other postal services.
South African Post Office (SAPO) rescue practitioner Louise Brugman said the outage has been attended to and the post office is functional again.
“The Tshwane metro changed the electricity meter from an account-run system to a prepaid meter.”
She said there was an issue with the allocation of payments on the municipality’s side, which the properties team at SAPO had been trying to rectify.
Brugman confirmed that the matter was escalated to the metro, which has now resolved the payment allocation issues, allowing the post office to purchase electricity under the new prepaid system.
“As of this week, SAPO has managed to get all payments allocated to the correct account.
“The good news is Wierda Park Post Office is back on its feet and is running,” she said.
During the outage, residents faced significant challenges in retrieving their parcels.
Marius Schoeman expressed his frustration at not being notified about the arrival of his parcel from overseas due to the power outage.
“Because they don’t have electricity, I was not notified,” Schoeman recounted.
“It took four days to get the correct shipment and tracking number,” he said.
He also faced issues with payment processing due to the ongoing electricity problems, which added to his frustration.
Despite these difficulties, Brugman assured residents no parcels would have been returned during the outage.
She said they were trying to use surrounding branches to notify customers of the whereabouts of their items.
“Now that the electricity is restored, customers will receive messages to collect their parcels,” she said.
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