A spike in violent crimes at post offices has left staff and customers fearing for their safety.
In data revealed by the South African Postal Workers Union (Sapwu), there were 856 violent crimes reported at post offices across the country over a 10-month period.
This was an increase of 44 incidents reported between April 2021 to February this year, when compared to the previous reporting year, which resulted in R57.1million in reported losses.
Burglaries increased by 13%, while robberies decreased by 10%.
Over the past six months, the Western Cape has seen a string of robberies targeting post offices in the metro and other outlying areas.
Two separate robberies occurred at two post offices within 30 minutes of each other last month in Milnerton. Two days prior, three suspects were arrested with stolen money, following a robbery at a post office at an Eerste River shopping centre.
• In February, the Durbanville post office was robbed of R50 000 by five suspects.
• In January, police arrested suspects who had held staff members at gunpoint at the De Doorns post office, and then fled the scene in a VW Golf with an undisclosed amount of cash. One of the suspects later died when their car overturned in Paarl.
• The same month, police arrested four men aged between 24 and 35 after staff at the Caledon post office were held up before robbers fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of money.
body.copy...: National secretary of the Sapwu, David Mangena, said they had raised the increase of crime and need for improved security measures at the national consultative forum with South African Post Office (Sapo) management.
“The main suggestion was that there must be working CCTV cameras and panic buttons in the offices and, secondly, there should be armed guards daily,” he said.
“We know that the cameras are not working. If you go there randomly you will know how our members are at risk. There is no security whatsoever inside the premises of the post office,” said Mangena.
Sapwu provincial chairperson Mogamat Karriem accused Sapo management of not taking the robberies as seriously as they should.
“There is money allocated for security and so they need to comply with this requirement, but there is no security,” he said.
Karriem said their members were being disciplined after the robberies, and blamed for negligence.
“Our members are being charged to say that there was negligence. They charge our members for running for their safety during robberies,” he said.
A post office worker – who asked to remain anonymous for fear of victimisation – said their branch had been robbed three times this year.
“We were robbed and there is no support from the company. We had to find our own ways to the doctor and counselling. I had trauma, but other people were shot and harmed in the office. We were robbed twice in one month.
“There were three robberies (this year), but I experienced two of them in January and February,” he said.
Sapo spokesperson Johan Kruger said their aim was to reduce cash at branches as a strategy to make the offices less attractive to criminals.
Among the strategies under consideration is the introduction of a voucher system for grant payments.
Kruger said transferring the payment of Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grants to supermarkets, where “beneficiaries spend their grants”, was a good example of limiting cash at offices.
However, millions of beneficiaries did not get their grants in April and May, with President Cyril Ramaphosa stating that the payments would be made this week.
Kruger said nearly 6 000 armed guards were deployed to post offices on a monthly basis, to partner with cash-in-transit companies to deliver cash. He further said plans were under way to upgrade alarm devices and the deployment of more armed guards.
“The (Sapo) has also embarked on upgrading its physical security within its branches,” Kruger said.
“The improvements are geared towards electronic cash protection devices that safeguard cash and have the ability to dye stain cash if it is tampered with.
“The majority of our branches are already equipped with such devices,” he said.
Kruger said the deployment of armed guards had started in January and was being rolled out to high-risk branches.