The abandoned SA Post Office building at EL’s Oxford street. (Randell Roskruge)
Labour demands removal of business rescue practitioners, calls for new management
Organised labour has rejected proposals by the business rescue practitioners (BRPs) to liquidate the troubled SA Post Office (Sapo), saying the move would result in 5,700 workers losing their jobs and pushing nearly 100,000 dependants deeper into poverty.
The minister of communications & digital technologies, Solly Malatsi, was questioned by MPs and the rescue practitioners after a letter revealing plans to seek Sapo’s liquidation was leaked.
On Friday, Haroon Laher of Fasken, the rescue practitioner tasked with Sapo’s business rescue, sent a letter to Malatsi and his deputy Mondli Gungubele, saying liquidation would be the only way forward unless the government injected cash into the Post Office.
This adds a twist to the business rescue process for the Post Office, which has cost R12.6m in rescue fees, R220.1m in consultants and specialists, and R27.9m in external advisory since the 2023/24 financial year. It needs an additional R3.8bn to finish the rescue process.
Cosatu parliamentary co-ordinator Matthew Parks said the labour federation rejects the “ludicrous proposals” to liquidate the Post Office.
“It is beyond shameful that the very same BRPs who were appointed through a court agreement with the creditors and the department of communications & digital technologies in 2023 have nothing to show for their tenure beyond retrenching thousands of Sapo 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,” Parks said.
“Workers have reported the BRPs’ abysmal failure to pay millions of rand owed to workers, including medical and pension funds plus taxes.
“It is clear that besides further crippling Sapo and pickpocketing its employees, the only thing the BRPs have to show for the past several years are the hefty fees they have helped themselves to from Sapo.”
He said Cosatu will not agree to Sapo’s liquidation, adding that “the only liquidation that must take place is that of the BRPs”.
“It is time that the department approached [a] court to remove the BRPs and put in place competent administrators who have the capability and commitment to ensuring its stabilisation and setting it back upon the path to sustainability.”
Cosatu will seek urgent engagements with Malatsi and parliament’s portfolio committee for communications “to provide comfort to workers that their jobs will be secured, monies paid and that a turnaround plan will be put in place”.
“It is critical that Treasury provide the previously committed financial support to enable such a turnaround to be implemented,” he said.
SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said if Sapo was liquidated, “it will represent one of the most devastating blows to workers and poor communities since the democratic transition”.
“It will confirm what Saftu has warned repeatedly for more than a decade: that the destruction of the Post Office has been a deliberate consequence of governance failures, corruption, and the refusal of authorities to act despite overwhelming evidence placed before them,” Vavi said.
He said the consequences of liquidating the Post Office would be immediate and catastrophic, with “about 5,700 remaining Post Office workers … immediately losing their jobs”.
“The majority of these workers are older black women, many of whom are the primary breadwinners in their families,” said Vavi.
“Each worker supports multiple dependants. The loss of these jobs would push an estimated 85,000 working-class family members deeper into poverty. In a country already suffering from mass unemployment and deep inequality, such a decision would be socially reckless.”
He called on the government to complete the recapitalisation of the Post Office. “The R3.8bn requested by the BRPs must be released so that the Post Office can settle its remaining debts and stabilise operations.”
Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) general secretary Riefdah Ajam said the Post Office has been in crisis for the past decade and the situation has only worsened.
“What exactly have the BRPs been doing when the Post Office continued to collapse year after year? The continued deterioration of the Post Office is a slap in the face to the South Africans and to the taxpayers whose money has been poured into saving the entity,” Ajam said.
“If an application for liquidation is filed, many workers will lose their jobs, and many communities will lose access to the one Post Office that has been convenient and affordable to them.”
“Marginalised and rural communities will suffer the most, as they rely on the Post Office for communication and access to grants.”
Ajam called for those who presided over Sapo’s collapse to be held accountable.
DA MP and labour analyst Michael Bagraim said: “Unfortunately, I think they should look to public-private partnerships and try and sell off some of the assets to use the profits to boost a new public-private company.
“In that way you’ll be able to save all the jobs and will also have money to look at rationalising if necessary.”
“At the moment they don’t even have money to pay proper severance payments to all the employees. There are international companies who would consider going into postal services to challenge all the private companies that exist at the moment in South Africa.
“The post office is asset-rich, which could be turned into a thriving business.”