OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday
SOUTH Africa gained more than R42m annually from postal trading with countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, the SA Post Office said this week.
Around R30m was received from 957 000kg of letter mail dispatched to the 14 nations in the region each year, said post office representative Sandile Madolo in Pretoria.
“On the international front, the SA Post Office exchanges surface and airmail dispatches with more than 90 countries across the globe,” he said.
These figures were released at a Southern African Transport and Communications Commission meeting in Cape Town on Monday.
Addressing guests at the opening, Communications Minister Ivy Mastepe-Casaburri said an estimated 194000kg of letter mail amounting to more than R6m in terminal dues was received every year.
“More than 150000 parcels to and from these countries to the value of more than R6,5m are handled annually,” she said.
The minister said the country stood to benefit from R300m in investment from the international mail centre at Johannesburg International Airport.
“To render an effective world-class postal service, the Post Office made major changes to its mail processing and distribution network,” she said.
This included six new major mail centres, different depot projects and the introduction of a new distribution network known as Hub and Spoke.
The country now operated a mail distribution system that would provide well for South Africa’s postal needs in the new millennium, she said.
“Apart from being proof of trust in the future of South Africa and the region, it (the post office) portrays the commitment to actively becoming a global player in the international postal arena and to securing the role of the postal hub of Africa,” she said.
The gathering adopted a five-year strategic plan which included the human resources practices, regional training centres and common performance management systems.
More than 50 delegates from nine countries attended the convention.