Cape Town - A total of 60 South African Post Office Branches were merged or closed in 2022, some due to affordability reasons, Sapo said on Wednesday.
This comes as the company announced recently it would let go of 60 000 employees, citing a decline in revenue.
Sapo’s chief executive Nomkhita Mona said Sapo last posted a profit in 2004, and the decline in its financial position began as far back as 17 years ago.
Mona said the recession in 2008 and the adoption of smartphones accelerated the decline.
“The Post Office continues to explore other options as it understands that the economy is not creating jobs at a fast pace.
“The new strategy for the ‘Post Office of Tomorrow’ needs to be funded to be properly implemented.
“The Post Office will need fewer employees who possess a skill set relevant to a technology driven entity. It is imperative that this be addressed to ensure the turnaround and survival of the Post Office,” she said.
About the merged or closed offices, she said: “Regulations made it compulsory to open a post office for every 10 000 citizens in the past. This brought about an oversupply of branches in cities.
“For that reason the Post Office is completing a program to rationalise its network, where unprofitable branches in cities are merged with others. That said, some branches were closed for affordability reasons.
Sapo employees were moved to neighbouring branches.”
In 2020, before the Covid pandemic, there were 1 300 post offices in South Africa. The current number is 1 050.
A Sapo employee said: “We are angry that as loyal employees we are being treated like this.
“We need a CEO with a better, brighter idea to prosper a company, not break down a company.”
Communications Worker Union (CWU) provincial secretary Wayne Bredenkamp said the sacrifices made by employees who have worked for the company for years was not valued.
“This negative impact has not just happened due to the Section 189 notice of the Post Office, but has been coming on for years, firstly in the form of no tools to do the job.
“Workers having to fork out money out of their pockets in order to keep the business operational, but then also in the form of office closures with workers moved from pillar to post.
“Clearly this company did not value those sacrifices of their employees. The CEO would not appreciate those sacrifices as she has only been here a few months, whereas it has been the workers who have been consistently in the front lines keeping Sapo alive,“ Bredenkamp said.
South African Communist Party (SACP) provincial secretary Benson Ngqentsu called for all working class leaders and organisations to condemn the decision by Sapo.
“Sapo, like any state entity, should serve as a backbone of economic development and preservation of jobs. We call on the Minister Finance Mr Enoch Godongwana to use his budget speech as a platform to intervene through allocating funds for the state entity. The Post Office must be repositioned than weakened through this neo-liberal restructuring in the form of retrenchment. I want to argue that such retrenchment at the Post Office will add to the many agitations for the removal of our ANC government from power,” he said.
Cape Times