Reported plans by the Post Office to sell its customers' personal information - including names, addresses, telephone numbers and identity numbers - have sparked a public outcry.
Local radio listeners have been inundating stations with complaints after Cape Town and Johannesburg newspapers reported that the Post Office aims to sell the information to private businesses.
The South African National Consumer Union has also reportedly taken issue with the plans, labelling the project an invasion of consumers' privacy. However, calls to the body's offices in Pretoria were unanswered this morning.
In February, software supplier and service bureau Intimate Data announced it had been contracted by the Post Office to build its National Address Database (NAD) and manage it for two years.
"This data will be used by SAPO to verify addresses before bulk mailings are undertaken, ensuring good, clean, deliverable items," the company said at the time. "This will save millions for SAPO in unnecessary handling costs and the industry in correct, non-returned deliveries."
The company says it is also working with the Post Office in ensuring the information is received by bulk mailers before they send their mail. "Verifying that your customer is actually at the supplied address will be made a lot easier and more cost-effective with the use of the NAD," it says.
Neither Intimate Data director John Ross nor Post Office spokesman Martin Ramotshela had returned calls by time of publication.
In 2002, a similar outcry was sparked when EasyInfo published an online directory of names, addresses and phone numbers, even when these were previously unlisted by Telkom.
The controversial directory was shut down after Telkom and EasyInfo agreed on a confidential settlement.
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