Zimbabwe Post strike disrupts postal services
The strike by workers at Zimbabwe Posts, which began last week, has disrupted postal services throughout the country.
It has also affected businesses and people who rely on postal services to send mail and bills.
Harare Main Post Office as well as other post offices in the city centre were closed for postal services but remained open for banking services.
A number of shops this week announced that they were unable to send statements of accounts to customers and advised them to physically check their statements.
Most shops and banks use postal services to issue monthly statements while pharmaceutical companies use the fast parcel service to send drugs to various destinations.
“This is a great inconvenience, which will result in many people failing to pay their monthly installments.
“There is no other way that a shop can communicate with all its customers except by post. Business will suffer immensely because of the strike,” said a manager at a local clothing shop.
People living out of Harare with accounts in the city said they were greatly inconvenienced, as they could not plan ahead.
“We usually find out how much we owe through the post but this time that has proved impossible, which means one can only find out how much they have to fork out when they get to the shop,” said Ms Hazvinei Chikwanda of Chihota.
With the festive season just around the corner, people said there was need for Zimpost management and workers to urgently resolve the matter.
A lot of mail, particularly Christmas cards and gifts, are exchanged via the post during the festive season.
“We have so much correspondence that has not reached us because of the strikes that are always going on at Zimpost.
“Right now Christmas is around the corner and there will be so much mail and parcels that need to be sent and received from within the country as well as outside,” said Ms Bridget Warker of Harare.
Last night Zimpost flighted an advertisement on television calling on the workers to return to work saying the matter had been referred for arbitration.
Zimbabwe Postal and Telecommunica-tions Workers Union chairman Mr Gift Chimanikire could not be reached for comment.
This latest strike by Zimpost workers comes in the wake of several other strikes by the workers this year.
