Justice has been delivered - quicker than some people receive their mail - for two people who stole money from an Eastern Cape post office less than a week ago.

Donovan Ferreira, 18, and Elroy Kleinhans, 22, pleaded guilty to breaking into the Paterson Post Office last Friday and stealing a money bag with almost R100 000 in cash out of the safe.

They were arrested on Saturday, the money was recovered on Sunday and, just a day later, on Monday, both were sentenced to 12 months in jail for housebreaking and theft, said Captain Andre Beetge.

He said investigations had revealed that Ferreira was the son of one of the post office employees who had keys to the building.

"On Friday night, he and his friend stole the post office keys from his parents' room at 22:00 and then went to the post office to steal the money."

Motherwell cluster commander Major General Dawie Rabie applauded officers for their swift work, stamping their authority to ensure that citizens followed the letter of the law.

"We cannot believe that all the keys and alarm codes to a business premises keeping large sums of money are kept by only one person," he said.

"Such a negligent situation is dangerous even to the life of that person, due to possibilities of abductions and robberies.

"We urge our business fraternity to re-evaluate their security systems and procedures, such as keys and key keepers, alarm codes and setting of alarms and related routines, to prevent incidents like this from repeating itself."