Amazon boycotts South Africa's postal system

Rampant theft by Post Office workers has infuriated the Internet retailing giant Amazon so much that it will no longer send goods to SA by post.

Anyone wanting to order directly from the US-based Web site must now pay for a private courier service - adding about R420 to the price of a DVD.

SA’s postal status makes the country the pariah of Africa, since no other country has had postal deliveries scrapped. The only other African country that cannot use the cheapest standard postal service is Nigeria, although Amazon still trusts Nigeria’s post office if buyers pay a slightly higher expedited shipping rate.

Amazon has long distrusted SA’s postal service, and already refuses to deliver high-priced goods, such as electronic items or perfumes, restricting shipments to CDs, DVDs and books. Private scamsters have also aggravated the crime rate, as people ordered and received goods, but claimed not to have received them, forcing Amazon to send replacement items at its own expense.

No one from the Post Office was available for comment. Its executives have been trying to clean up its image by improving systems, and reported a 69% reduction in theft last year.

A day after US online retail giant Amazon announced that it was no longer offering South African customers standard postal delivery due to massive theft by SA Post Office employees, the post office has announced that it will sell cut-price books, DVDs and CDs direct to the public outside the back door of its branches nationwide.

According to a statement made by Post Office spokesman Gift Mkhize, the new retail outlets would operate on a cash-only, first-come first-served, don't-ask-don't-tell basis.

He added that for those customers who did not feel like queuing there would be "mobile franchises" parked near most branches, where the public was welcome to buy goods out of the boots of Post Office employees' cars.

Asked if the Post Office was ashamed at being the only postal service in Africa to be blacklisted by the US retail giant, Mkhize was defiant, saying that Amazon's bold branding on its packaging was to blame for the rampant pilfering.

"Those parcels have 'Amazon' written all over them," he said. "Our employees find this very provocative.