Postal strike strips students of study material

The postal strike has left university students without textbooks and forced a businessman to cancel a trip.

About 1500 staff members from mail sorting centres in Pretoria and post office branches in Johannesburg have been on strike for a week.

Philip Pelucha had to cancel a business trip that could have secured long-term work in Hungary because his wife's passport got lost in the post. He said the global financial services company he works for was unimpressed by having to change the couple's flights and hotel bookings.

"If I have to change dates again because of this strike, I fear for my promotion, career and job."

He had used the post office to courier the passport to the Hungarian embassy in Pretoria but it never arrived.

Unisa student Thando Hlabangana has been waiting for his study material since February 6.

"I am supposed to hand in my assignment by [ March 15] . This is greatly depressing."

Pretoria resident Lerato Malope also had assignments due but not the study material necessary to complete them.

According to Post Office spokesman Philip Ngomane, the 1500 or so on strike were duped by certain colleagues into paying for a lawsuit against the post office.

The staff members believed they stood to win billions of rands from the legal action and collectively handed over an estimated R400000 in legal fees for a case that was presented by people who were not lawyers and was thrown out of court.

Though the post office was awarded an interdict on February19 that ruled that the strike was unprotected, the strike has continued for a week. Post office management believes the strike will end in the next few days.