Reports that the South African Post Office (Sapo) had been placed under provisional liquidation by a single creditor, and that provisional liquidators have been appointed, came as as no surprise, DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard said yesterday.
This after the Master of the High Court issued a certificate of appointment to Kaap Vaal Trust on March 30, 2023. Kaap Vaal Trust applied for the provisional liquidation after the Post Office was unable to pay its debts.
Sapo has so far failed to issue a statement on the matter.
Kohler Barnard said: “While the liquidators seek a pay-out for their client, we equally hope that not only are personal debts covered for those who rented properties for PO branches, which were then surreptitiously closed leaving behind massive debts; but that the Post Office employees’ and retired workers’ medical aid, UIF and pension contributions which the management has carefully and criminally failed to pay over for a number of years, are met in full.”
According to its most recent financial statements for the 2021/22 year to end-March 2022, it owes more than R4.4 billion to creditors and its debt exceeded its assets by R4bn.
The National Treasury awarded the state-owned entity a R2.4 billion cash injection earlier this year to clear its debt.
Kohler Barnard said: “The DA is against any form of bail-out and will write to the Minister of Finance and call on him to confirm that there is no new bail-out for Sapo. But if there is, it must be used to pay the benefit contributions for staff and pensioners, not to cover Sapo debt to avoid liquidation.”
She said the DA saw Sapo as beyond repair and it should be liquidated.
“The Sapo has lost millions in taxpayer money annually since 2013. It has slowly collapsed, despite massive bailouts, and is cutting jobs, and closing branches,” she said.
Last month it was reported that Sapo had closed another 92 post offices, with 50 of them being closed by unpaid landlords.
In October, Johan Kruger, the head of communications for the SA Post Office, said that 1 200 post offices were functioning.
The closure of post offices has the knock-on effect of denying people access to critical services, particularly for those in rural communities who rely on post offices as their primary means of obtaining their social grants.
In February, the Communication Workers’ Union said it would take action to ensure no jobs were lost after the Post Office announced that it was contemplating reducing staff numbers.
The union said the proposed retrenchments could see 6 000 jobs lost, leaving thousands of families without breadwinners.
In response, Kruger confirmed that the entity was in consultation with labour unions.
Yesterday SABC also reported that the Communications Workers’ Union had also called on the government to intervene in the possible liquidation of Sapo.
Meanwhile, ActionSA yesterday said in a statement that it had learned of how scores of sickly and elderly grant recipients had been repeatedly and unfairly turned away from the Mdantsane branch of Sapo and that it would formally lodge a complaint to the public protector about the unethical and insensitive ill-treatment of social grant recipients.
ActionSA said that on April 11 elderly grant recipients, who were turned away decided that had had enough and could no longer afford these senseless back-and-forth trips.
They refused to leave the Mdantsane post office until plans were made to remedy the situation.
“The pressure from these desperate grant recipients and from civil organisations led to the processing of social grant payments ‘miraculously’ resuming just after 3pm,” said the party.
“This despite being told that there was no money on the premises for this purpose.
“This is clear evidence of the ineptitude and uncaring attitude of those tasked with the disbursements of social grants at this Post Office,” it said.
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