South African Post Office Needs R3.8 Billion for Bailout, SA Rejects Its Suggestion

South African Post Office Needs R3.8 Billion for Bailout, SA Rejects Its Suggestion

  • The Post Office needs R3.8 billion to save the state-owned enterprise from certain collapse
  • The business rescue practitioners revealed that the Post Office has not been making money in over 15 years
  • South Africans refused to accept that the SAPO needed a bailout and wondered why it was still operating

Tebogo Mokwena, Briefly News's current affairs journalist, offered coverage of current affairs and societal issues during his seven years at Daily Sun and Vutivi Business News.

The South African Post Office needs R3.8 billion to save it from crumbling
Mzansi rejected the Post Office's recommendation that it be given R3.8 billion to save it. Image: Peter Titmuss/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Source: Getty Images

The South African Post Office wants a R3.8 billion bailout for the ailing state-owned enterprise. This is even though it has bled R19 billion over the past few years. South Africans rejected the Post Office's request and were fed up with failing SOEs being bailed out.

SAPO operating at a loss

According to TimesLIVE, the Post Office's business rescuers Juanito Damons and Anoosh Rooplal believe that SAPO lost almost R20 billion because of an inability to adapt to technological development. A document they drafted revealed that the Post Office's operational costs exceed revenue by 200 per cent. Furthermore, the company has outdated IT infrastructure and inefficient equipment for processing mail. They added that the logistics fleet is unreliable and prevents SAPO from meeting its customers' needs.

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The rescuers added that the last time the Post Office made any profit was in 2004. Since then, it has been operating at a loss. Another solution the document offered was retrenching some 6000 employees, which would require R600 million for retrenchment packages. This means that if 6000 employees were retrenched, each would get R100,000.

Mzansi is fed up with bailing SOEs out

South Africans on Facebook decried the Post office and their request for a bailout.

Puleng Seitshiro asked:

“Why should our hard-earned tax money be repeatedly wasted on the Post Office when it has nothing much to offer the public? Instead, we use Postnet and Takealot and many other courier companies.”

Richard Munwanati added:

“Bailout after bailout. What’s up with these entities? Surely there must be other ways to ensure that state-owned entities sustain themselves. They are supposed to be making money and employing many people, but instead, they are sacking lots of taxpayers’ money for nothing.”

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Ruansa Van Eeden wrote:

“Another ANC success story.”

Mxolisi Kheswa remarkwd:

“The ANC rot has finally reached the ceiling. No more bailouts, please.”

Lindiwe Sisulu blames PostBank for no payments

In a related story, Briefly News reported that the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, apologised to SASSA recipients and blamed the Postbank for the delay in grant payment.

This was after many grant recipients had not received their payouts in September. South Africans were tired of the government shifting blame and voiced their frustrations on social media.

Source: Briefly News

Authors:
Tebogo Mokwena avatar

Tebogo Mokwena (Current Affairs editor) Tebogo Mokwena is a Current Affairs Editor at Briefly News. He has a Diploma in Journalism from ALISON. He joined Daily Sun, where he worked for 4 years covering politics, crime, entertainment, current affairs, policy, governance and art. He was also a sub-editor and journalist for Capricorn Post before joining Vutivi Business News in 2020, where he covered small business news policy and governance, analysis and profiles. He joined Briefly News in 2023. Tebogo passed a set of trainings by Google News Initiative Email: tebogo.mokwena@briefly.co.za