Cosatu has welcomed the appointment of a board for the South African Post Office. (ALAN EASON)
Labour federation remains strongly opposed to plans to liquidate the SA Post Office
Labour federation Cosatu has welcomed the board appointment for the South African Post Office after three years in a yet-to-be-finalised business rescue process that has seen about 600 post offices closed.
Business Day reported in March that organised labour had rejected proposals by the business rescue practitioners to liquidate the troubled SA Post Office, saying the move would result in 5,700 workers losing their jobs and push nearly 100,000 dependants deeper into poverty.
Minister of communications & digital technologies Solly Malatsi was questioned by MPs and the rescue practitioners after a letter revealing plans to seek the SA Post Office’s liquidation was leaked.
This was after Haroon Laher of Fasken, the rescue practitioner tasked with the SA Post Office’s business rescue, wrote to Malatsi and his deputy Mondli Gungubele, saying liquidation would be the only way forward unless the government injected cash into the SA Post Office.
The business rescue process has cost R12.6m in rescue fees, R220.1m in consultants and specialists, and R27.9m in external advisory since the 2023/2024 financial year. In March the business rescue practitioners said an additional R3.8bn was needed to finish the rescue process.
In his budget vote in May, Malatstsi allocated R595m.
Last week, the government announced the appointment of the new board for the SA Post Office. Its members are Regina Sizakele Madlala (chair), Margarete Mosibudi Phiri (deputy chair), Vuyo Mafata, Tanya van Meelis, Mantombi Lekhuleni, Mthokozisi Daluxolo Xulu, Mduduzi Justice Kennedy Bophela, Charley Fred Chain, David Mangena and Khonanjalo Buthelezi.
Cosatu parliamentary co-ordinator Matthew Parks said: “For far too long the SA Post Office has been allowed to deteriorate to a state of near collapse. The absence of dedicated and fit-for-purpose leadership has been at the centre of this painful decline in addition to failing to keep pace with structural shifts in the postal and communications sectors.”
Parks said matters had been made worse by the “disastrous tenure of the business rescue practitioners” appointed through a court agreement with the creditors and the department of communications and digital technologies in 2023.
Parks said the business rescue practitioners had “nothing to show beyond retrenching thousands of SA Post Office employees and plunging their families into absolute poverty and despair, closing hundreds of branches and thus further shrinking its customer base and potential to recover”.
“Workers have been left for years without seeing their meagre wages being adjusted for inflation, yet the business rescue practitioners have made sure to pay themselves sumptuous fees. Recent rash threats by the business rescue practitioners to liquidate the SA Post Office have pointed to the urgent need for the appointment of a board that can take charge of the entity and put in place a viable path to recovery,” Parks said.
“Cosatu will never agree to the liquidation. The only liquidation that must take place is that of the business rescue practitioners. It is time that the department approached the courts to remove the business rescue practitioners and provide the board with the necessary space and support to ensure the SA Post Office is stabilised and set back upon the path to sustainability.”
Parks said the turnaround of other embattled state-owned enterprises, from Transnet to Metro Rail, “proves they can be fixed and again contribute to stimulating economic growth and creating jobs with competent management, the removal of criminal and corrupt elements, filling frontline vacancies and recruiting critical skills, and investing in the company’s infrastructure and capacity”.
“The SA Post Office and Postbank Amendment Acts passed by parliament provide a turnaround plan for both institutions by allowing the SA Post Office to enter the highly lucrative courier business and to become a one-stop shop for citizens to access public services and enabling the Postbank to become a fully licensed state bank aimed at working-class and rural residents all too often redlined by the private banking sector,” he said.
“Cosatu will seek urgent engagements with the ministry and parliament’s portfolio committee on communications and digital technologies to provide comfort to workers that their jobs will be secured, money paid and a turnaround plan put in place. It is critical that the National Treasury provide the necessary financial support to enable such a turnaround to be implemented as a matter of the highest priority.”
Source: https://www.businessday.co.za/news/2026-06-08-why-cosatu-is-backing-sa-post-office-board-appointment