Who needs 'em?

The ongoing South African Post Office strike proves that actual letters are a thing of the past, and the entity and its physical embodiment, in the form of guys on clunky red bicycles, baskets laden with bills, love letters and parcels, is set to go the way of the dodo.

The Post Office strike, which crippled deliveries in Gauteng for several months and has cost the entity R97 million in lost revenue and R6 million in overtime, has highlighted the fact that it belongs to a bygone era. In a way, it's kind of sad that an entity that dates itself back to some time in the 1800s is now rendered useless because of an illegal strike.

The strike resulted from misinformation by some employees who wanted to extort money from unsuspecting colleagues, says the Post Office in a statement. Some staff had reportedly told others that, because of a court ruling, the Post Office owed all its employees a substantial amount of money.

"Essentially, the alleged claim was for a payout in the region of billions and has been found to be incorrect and baseless. It is important to highlight that the SA Post Office does not owe employees any money."

The staff member who led the misinformation and fraudulent campaign has been arrested, while striking workers were eventually fired and the Post Office went to work in a bid to get mail delivered.

I haven't seen any tangible effect myself, as post has just started trickling in, and it's mostly junk mail anyway. No, I don't need a credit card limit increase. Currently, post seems to be taking longer to arrive than when the first letter was 'posted' in a tree 500 years ago.

According to a history on its Web site, the first known letter 'delivery' took place in 1501, when Pedro D'Ataide, the captain of a Portuguese ship, put a letter in a Milkwood tree at Mossel Bay. The letter contained information about a disaster that struck his fleet after three ships went down during a severe storm in the Atlantic Ocean.

The 'post' was found three months later and made its way back to Portugal courtesy of another fleet.

In 1848, the first official postmen in the then Transvaal were appointed, taking over from the practice of sending private mail via 'any available transport', or through a special messenger. In 1853, the first South African stamp, the Cape Triangular stamp, was commissioned.

Currently, post seems to be taking longer to arrive than when the first letter was 'posted' in a tree 500 years ago.

The first post boxes were erected in the Cape on 8 June 1860, and one of them - in Worcester Street, Grahamstown - can still be used. By 1931, more postmen were hired, but found their jobs thwarted by the fact that they hand-delivered items, which was problematic when people were not at home.

Notes the Post Office: "It was decided to introduce a new system already in use in other countries. Residents had to put up a 'receiving device' at their front door or gate. Residents were not very happy about this, but it facilitated the delivery of mail amazingly."

Since then, however, the local posty has lagged what is happening in other countries. In the US, the postal service plans to ditch Saturday deliveries to save money as it is not exactly profitable, and consumers are moving to the private sector to get items delivered. Globally, e-mail is seen as one of the biggest threats to the continued existence of the stamp, and the postal service.

I have no idea how the Post Office is doing financially, because I cannot download its annual report. The fact that I'll probably only be able to get my hands on a copy - in several weeks - via post says much about the Post Office's lack of direction and failure to keep up with the times.

The Post Office seems to be ignoring the threat of the Internet as a delivery mechanism, and is instead focusing on clearing what it calls a 'backlog'. I can't imagine how it can have a 'backlog', as the lack of service doesn't seem to have been an inhibitor to the greater economy.

If nothing else, the lack of post people zipping from box to box across the street shows that most working, and fairly well-off, South Africans don't need it. The strike has been going on for months, and all I've missed is a Noseweek subscription and a renewal form for my car licence.

Noseweek solved its dilemma by giving everyone free access to online content for the affected period, and I shall simply download a form and send it via e-mail to a queue-for-you-type organisation. Problem solved.

After the last strike, when bills went astray, I made a few calls and managed to organise that every single bill and statement I need will arrive in my inbox. So, I hardly ever actually get real post anymore.

Chatting with colleagues, much the same picture emerged. I'm sure there are umpteen people in SA who can't even remember when last they stepped into a Post Office.

Alas, those who will really be affected are people who don't have access to the Internet. Yet, this number is shrinking, thanks to mobile networks and smartphones. Even Stan, the car wash guy, has an e-mail address.

If government actually manages to pull off broadband for all by 2020, the South African Post Office will be redundant. Perhaps, maybe, with the exception of parcels. Actually, no, that's what the private sector is for, and who's going to trust the Post Office anyway?