There were mixed opinions on Twitter over the South African Post Office retrenchments. Twitter reacted:

@Christothurston

Why does the post office fall apart and needs to retrench 6000 workers? 1. It is managed by the ANC. 2. There is no modernisation. It uses the same model used in the 1800s. 3. Like home affairs staff, PO staff act as if they do you a favour when they assist you.

@Mbee_illiam

The post office has long been a loss-making entity and declining even during Jacob Zuma’s tenure. Mark Barnes thought he could turn it around as CEO but he too failed. So why pin the resultant retrenchments on Cyril Ramaphosa’s policies?

@Brahlonisky

This company from Denmark is making a profit in postal and courier services on our shores. Meanwhile the South African Post Office with all the infrastructure is retrenching 6000 employees.

@Madlala_tm

The retrenchment of 6 000 post office employees is way too justifiable. In fact they should fire everyone including the useless politicians. That department is led by the most useless people in South Africa.

@mike_superb

Who would have thought that stealing clients’ parcels, delivering post months after postage, treating clients like they are a nuisance would lead to the collapse of the post office – unbelievable.

@khanyizama

They have ushered in privatisation in the form of “convenience”. Banks have taken over ID and passport applications at a fee, supermarkets have taken over the licence disc renewal process... Instead of fixing these departments politicians are fighting over positions of power.

@hiltontarrant

How on earth does the South African Post Office have 16 000 employees?! Telkom has 7 300 employees (which includes network unit Openserve). A decade ago, it had 21 000.

@Dearkatli

The broke postal service hinted that it will have back-to-back meetings with unions regarding retrenchments this week pending bailout from the South African Reserve Bank. Cosatu expects stakeholders to come up with funding mechanism.

@Charles48253336

Why remove payment of grants, motor licence payments and other services? Simple, they kill the state entities to allow private sector to benefit. Is it Zuma? Is it state capture? The beneficiaries are some white-owned establishments, banks and supermarkets.

@Davethipe

Went to my local post office last week and the tellers clearly had nothing to do, shame. Had to go and buy my own envelope because they had none.