adminpost a registered mail.
Machaya Machaya was found guilty by a disciplinary committee and discharged of her duties.
The customer who suffered potential prejudice needed to post her visa application forms to the United Kingdom when Zimbabwe was still using local currency. She was desperate as she had a deadline to meet when submitting the forms.
The complainant went to Nyanga Post Office and approached a colleague of Machaya who attended to her.
Her mail was weighed in order to ascertain the value of postage stamps she was supposed to buy. The young man who attended to her advised that postage would cost her Z$10 million cash.
She had Z$ 1,5 million cash so she asked if she could pay for the postage by cheque. The man, after ascertaining this with his superiors, insisted that she had to pay cash.
That is when Machaya, who was on another counter, got interested in the discussion.
Machaya asked the customer whether she would be able to afford a cheque payment since the amount payable would have risen drastically from millions to billions. The customer accepted the expensive way of paying by cheque as she was anxious for the mail to be posted.
Machaya then told her that she would have to write a cheque for Z$10 billion as payment for the postage, with the cheque being made in favour of POSB.
The customer then rushed to her bank and had a bank draft made out as instructed by Machaya. She took the cheque to her and was given the necessary stamps. Machaya then wrote “By Air Mail” on the envelope.
Machaya instructed the customer to write the sender’s name on the envelope and then post it in the post box.
When she later got home, she told her husband about the incident and realised that she had been overcharged. It occurred to her that the most she could have paid was Z$100 million.
She decided to go back to the Post Office the next day where she found that Machaya had taken two weeks leave.
The matter was reported to the postmaster and Machaya was later charged with attempted fraud after he reimbursed the customer her money.
Machaya then appealed to the Labour Court seeking reinstatement and arguing that the sentence was harsh. Labour Court president, Ms Euna Makamure, said Machaya’s conduct was potentially prejudicial to Zimpost.
Under the circumstances, Ms Makamure then dismissed Machaya’s appeal.
Online Reporter