Homeless turn post office into place of fear

STAFF at a Knysna post office have spoken of their fear following the assault of a cleaner, allegedly by homeless people who have made one of their offices a home.

Staff at the branch said that for years they had struggled to prevent the homeless from accessing the office.

According to them, homeless people had access codes to gain entry to the office.

A traumatised employee, speaking anonymously, said: “They have access codes because some of our clients give them to them to collect their post after hours.

“This is our main problem because the homeless people use these codes to gain access to the facility and sleep here.”

The employee said the premises could be locked after working hours but this limited customers’ access to their boxes.

“They have mattresses and other stuff here. A cleaner was attacked by them when he told them to leave a couple of days ago.

“They are violent. They are sometimes armed with knives. When we change the codes, some clients continue giving the new ones to the homeless,” said the employee.

There was no security overnight and this had an impact on clients who collected their post at night.

“When we tell them (homeless people) to go, they become volatile. They sometimes smoke dagga inside. This of course affects other clients who use the service,” said the employee.

A Post Office spokesperson, Martie Gilchrist, said they had approached the police to assist.

“The South African Post Office fenced the area off, got coded locks and approached the SAPS to assist.

“The gate at the back entrance to the box section has recently been fixed by a client and is locked overnight. The only entrance is at the front where the coded locks are,” Gilchrist said.

“The issue has been going on for several years.

“This code has been changed recently. However, it seems the problem arises when box holders sit in their vehicles and give the vagrants the codes to go collect their mail. They don’t want to get out of their vehicles.”