The decision by Telkom to close their outlet in the Makhado Crossing at the end of June has left Telkom clients with a big problem.

As with all national service providers, such as the SABC, Eskom, and many others, customers often feel frustrated when they do not experience good service from Telkom. The frustration and dissatisfaction are often mitigated by the fact that one can at least go to their local office/outlet and complain to the poor employee stuck there behind the counter about his/her bosses’ indifference or the unwillingness of the technician(s) to come out sooner or perform their duties diligently. This whole scenario changes, however, if such an office/outlet no longer exists.

This situation, unacceptable as it is, is exacerbated by the complete lack of care on the part of Telkom to either inform the residents of Makhado (Louis Trichardt) in a timely fashion (by putting an ad or notice in the newspaper or even a notice at the outlet itself) or to give residents the opportunity to question this decision that impacts on the lives of thousands of people. As far as could be established, the employees who worked there did not have a say in the matter either and simply had to accept retrenchment packages and find employment elsewhere.

Any businessperson can tell one that the object of any business is to make money, in the most efficient way possible. While Telkom’s ability to make money is perhaps debatable, one would still assume that the decision to move an outlet from the middle of the CBD to a location in Makhado Crossing was made while taking all of the factors involved into account. One of these must be overhead costs, with a definite view to generating sufficient business to cover all the costs involved. It appears that, despite the objections by those in the know (read locals and the people working at the outlet) that such a move would be too costly – chiefly because of the monthly rent – and that fewer people visit the mall than the CBD, Telkom went ahead with it anyway. The result? A few years later, it closes down and Telkom customers now have to go to Polokwane or Thohoyandou for service.

In spite of efforts to elicit an answer from Telkom at local, provincial and national level, no clear answer has been received up to now why this decision was taken. One former employee indicated that the reason given to them was that the branch was “not making money”. Another of the employees said that “the town is not big enough” to warrant an outlet and is not growing sufficiently. This despite the fact that the town has had an outlet for decades, even since the time before the post office and Telkom split and has just about doubled in size since then, and the fact that the municipality announced some time ago that Makhado is projected to be a city by 2025.