Deputy President Paul Mashatile has categorically stated that the government will not relinquish its commitment to the South African Post Office (SAPO) despite its ongoing economic difficulties.
Mashatile dismissed the notion presented by Freedom Front Plus MP Hendrik Jacobus van den Berg, who likened SAPO to a “dead horse”, suggesting that it might be time to stop funding the struggling entity in light of pressing budgetary concerns.
He said rather than consigning the Post Office to oblivion, concerted efforts must be made to address the institution's serious challenges.
“We can't say it is a dead horse that must be put down. We just need to go through those reports properly, look at what the challenges are, particularly because in rural areas, one of the institutions that really reaches out to the rural areas is the Post Office,” Mashatile said.
He said the Post Office has not been doing well for a number of years now.
“The Presidential Commission on State-Owned Enterprises has looked at a number of state-owned enterprises. There are state-owned enterprises that may be matched with others to ensure efficiency.”
However, he said the Post Office plays an essential role, particularly in rural areas where it remains a lifeline for many impoverished citizens.
“It is serving the poorest of the poor, so by the time we say no, this mechanism of the Post Office is not working, and we need to replace it with something workable.”
Mashatile also said a gap could not be created by closing down an institution and resulting in a vacuum where people would not be served.
“I am particularly concerned that ordinary poor people in rural areas really rely on the Post Office to be able to receive services. Therefore, whatever will be done going forward must ensure that in the absence of that institution, there is an alternative that is going to perform those tasks,” he added.
“To ensure that those people in rural areas, in particular, continue to be served in the absence of such an institution, we will analyse this properly, we'll look at it, and we'll make sure we take the right decision going forward.”
Mashatile’s statement comes after the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies recently welcomed the approval by the National Treasury of a virement of R150 million to assist SAPO in addressing immediate financial pressures.
Late last year, SAPO put on hold capital expenditure after it failed to secure a bailout from the National Treasury.
SAPO was placed under business rescue in 2023 but its hopes of an additional outstanding R3.8 billion were dashed when Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tabled the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement and did not make an allocation when exercising his “tough love” to state-owned enterprises.
Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi has since asked for the support of the National Treasury to pursue private partnerships for SAPO.
Malatsi asked the National Treasury to support the formation of a task team to investigate private financial and operations partners for SAPO to enable serious consideration of privatisation scenarios.
He had said it was clear that any allocation of previously committed funds to the SAPO, which is under business rescue, would be based on a revised business plan by the business rescue practitioners and work to ensure there was accountability for failure to meet previous conditions that were imposed for the financial support SAPO received.