Mailboxes overflowing after weeks of no mail

“It is either all the way or nothing at all. If you don’t want to deliver a postal service then don’t. Close down because you don’t help us at all”. That is how a frustrated post box holder summed up the situation on Saturday morning after Namib Times took the Walvis Bay post office to task for simply allowing mail to pile up in the mail dispatch room instead of ensuring mail reach the post boxes every day and on time.

Members of the public reacted with relief after the front page article on Friday. Only hours later post boxes were overflowing with mail, some mail pieces of which the date stamps revealed it could have spent weeks in the mail sorting room.
“We didn’t get mail for more than two weeks. Suddenly we have mail boxes filled to the brim and that with some mail pieces more than a month old. Honestly, the post office must decided whether it wants to render the service. If they don’t want to, close down and leave it to the private sector to sort out”, said one very frustrated businessman.
Utility bills are not reaching the public in the mailboxes in time and often the mail don’t reach post boxer holders on time. There is one business owner who explained his electricity supply was cut by ErongoRED some weeks ago be-cause she never received an account through the mail. As it was the deadline for payment, she decided to pay over the exact amount as the previous month, but unknowingly that was a few hundred Namibia Dollars short. Electricity supply was cut and only when they made inquiries to ErongoRED did she pay in the amount outstanding and electricity sup-ply was restored.
Other business-people complained they not only receive utility bills late, but there is also a growing problems with clients complaining to them they don’t receive their accounts from these businesses over the mail.
“We are relying on the postal system. If the postal system is not functioning optimally that means us as private sector get hurt. On the one end if we don’t receive utility bills for water and electricity in time, we risk being cut if we don’t pay. On the other hand our debtors don’t get their accounts over the post in time and that means payments are late. It is not easy to run a business in these challenging times and certainly the postal service is not helping to alleviate the pressure”, explained another.
One businessman mailed himself an envelope at several occasions in recent months. He posted the envelope at the Walvis Bay post office and the letter took more than two weeks to reach his post box. “What kind of efficiency is this?”
A lady whose post box was filled to the brim after the article in Friday’s newspaper says she has no doubts the Walvis Bay post office is under-performing. “Why now suddenly a mailbox overflowing. And that with mail more than a month old?”