What’s behind the R3.8billion delay? COSATU demands urgent talks to save SAPO

South Africa’s largest trade union, COSATU, says it will seek urgent meetings with the government to save the struggling South African Post Office South Africa’s largest trade union, COSATU,says it will seek urgent meetings with the government to save the struggling South African Post Office (SAPO). IOL previously reported that the Business Rescue Practitioners(BRPs) revealed that the government’s promised second funding tranche of R3.8 billion to fully implement SAPO’s Business Rescue Plan has not materialised. It was also previously reported that the BRPs have warned that losing the Post Office’s exclusivity over parcels under 1 kg could slash future revenues and threaten the financial recovery of the state-owned entity.

In a statement released to the media, COSATUMatthew Parks, Parliamentary Coordinator, said the union will seek “urgent engagements with the Ministers for Digital Communications and Technology, Treasury, and Employment and Labour to find progressive solutions for the ongoing crises threatening the collapse of the SAPO and the jobs of thousands of its employees”. “We are extremely worried about reports that the R3.8 billion committed by National Treasury has still not been received by SAPO and that only three out of six agreed to tranches of payments from the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s Temporary Employee Relief Scheme (UIF’s TERS) have been paid. These not only make the long-promised turnaround of the SAPO impossible but also risk its remaining employees’ jobs,” Parks said.

He added that “It is very concerning that SAPO’s Business Rescue Practitioner is now said to be considering approaching the courts to liquidate SAPO”. “If SAPO is allowed to collapse and if reports that government funds earmarked to assist its turnaround have not been paid are true, these will undermine the efforts of government, Parliament and Nedlac, who spent countless hours amending the SAPO,” Parks added. “And Postbank Acts to enable SAPO to embark upon a new and sustainable business model, in particular entering the highly lucrative courier business and becoming a one-stop shop for members of the public to access government services, as well as to enable the Postbank to become a fully licensed state consumer bank”.