Pensioner receives fake banknoteWhat appears to be a callous scam is depriving the elderly of their meagre pension money. NamPost denies involvement Annelise van der Merwe (79) got the shock of her life when she was told by a cashier at Shoprite-Checkers at Maerua Mall that a N$100 note she had pulled from her pension payout was a counterfeit note. Van der Merwe, who is currently in Windhoek, had her son, Christie, collect her pension payout from NamPost at Maltahöhe at the end of last month.
Her son-in-law, Toss du Toit, said the counterfeit note was neatly stashed in the middle of the bundle.
“The note was purple, not pink like the authentic notes,” observed Du Toit, who has since reported the matter to the police at Maltahöhe.
When contacted for comment, the postmaster at Maltahöhe, Claire Januarie, said staff at the post office had previously come across false N$200 notes among the pension money. She claimed that the staff had “refunded” the pensioners from their own pockets.
During this conversation she was on the phone with someone else and was overheard saying: “They have reported us to the newspapers.”
Du Toit said Januarie had called him after the interview with the newspaper and wanted to urgently speak to Van der Merwe to arrange a “refund”.
He said Januarie also wanted to know why the family had reported the matter to the newspaper, since she had done them a favour by handing the pension money to Van der Merwe’s son instead of insisting that she collect it personally.
Januarie referred the newspaper to the postmaster at Mariental, Belinda Januarie, who said Maltahöhe should answer for this matter.
NamPost at Mariental collects the monthly pension money from the town’s Standard Bank branch and then distributes it to smaller post offices in the region where pensioners collect their payouts.
Standard Bank’s head of service support at Mariental, Herta Meyer, said a NamPost representative is present at all times while the money is being counted. She added that the bank’s counting machines would pick up any counterfeit notes.
“It is not possible for a fake note to cross our counters. Money is counted note for note in the presence of NamPost staff. What happens to the money afterwards I cannot say. I do not know how it is distributed thereafter,” said Meyer.
NamPost’s manager of corporate communications, Wilson Shikoto, said the Maltahöhe postmaster had indeed told the newspaper that there were fake N$200 notes in circulation at the village, but maintained that Januarie did not say the incident took place at the post office.
“To date, NamPost did not have an incident of a fake note in Maltahöhe,” said Shikoto.
He admitted that pension money is counted in the presence of a NamPost representative at the bank and added that NamPost has its own counting machines that would detect fake notes.
“It should, however, be noted that we also receive money over the counter as deposits and yes, there is a possibility that a fake note can creep [in]. Such incidences will be minimal as our staff are trained to be vigilant with cash handling and identification of fake money. In the same vein we encourage every citizen to be vigilant of fake notes,” Shikoto said.
He stressed that the fake note was not reported when the cash was handed over at the post office, arguing that there was “ample time” between receiving the cash and spending it in Windhoek “for any other force of play to have entered”.
He did, however, say if it can be verified that the fake money was indeed paid out at the post office it should be reported so that disciplinary steps can be taken against staff.
CATHERINE SASMAN