By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The South African Post Office (Sapo) has encouraged the public to make use its services for the collection of chronic medication from more than 300 branches.
South Africa’s Post Office is trying to reinvent itself. The state-owned postal service is technically insolvent. It hasn’t made a profit in more than a decade.
Amid the Post Office’s dire operational and financial circumstances, it announced earlier in June that it would be handling and distributing chronic medication.
“The service is aimed at patients who live or work closer to a post office [instead of] a government clinic. The main benefit of the service is longer service hours. Post office branches are open until 5pm on weekday and until 12:30pm on Saturday,” Sapo said on Tuesday.
The collection service is available at 342 post offices in all provinces except the Western Cape.
These post offices were selected because they comply with the requirements of the Department of Health.
Sapo said medication that requires specialised storage, such as cold storage, cannot be collected from one of their branches.
“Patients of government clinics, who would like to collect their medication from their local post office, should arrange it with their clinic. The Department of Health sends the patient a SMS when the medication is ready for collection and patients have 14 days to collect it before the medication is returned to the Department of Health,” Sapo said.
Sapo has also warned customers of fraudulent emails requesting outstanding customs fees for parcels to be paid for online.
“Members of the public receive an email stating that a parcel addressed to them is being retained because customs fees on it are outstanding. The notice entices them to click on a link that leads them to a website where they can make a payment to release the fictitious parcel,” Sapo said.
If there are customs fees payable on a parcel posted from abroad, the client pays the fees when they collect the parcel.
“The Post Office gives customers the opportunity to check a parcel before they officially take it into possession, and therefore does not require the payment of any fees before the time of collection.
“The Post Office normally sends a SMS when a parcel is ready for collection and never requests an EFT or online payment before a parcel is collected. Any request for an electronic payment should be viewed as a scam,” Sapo said.
Emails sent from the Post Office are identifiable by “@postoffice.co.za”. The scam emails are sent from different servers.
The email includes a parcel number starting with the letters ZA, which was not generated by the Post Office. When tracked on the Post Office website, the parcel number does not give any result.