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Chairperson of the Communications and Digital Technologies, Ms Khusela Sangoni Diko, has called for seriousness and urgency from government on the South African Post Office (SAPO) turnaround.
 
The committee has noted an announcement by the Minister that virement funding of R150 million has been allocated to the SAPO. The funding is too little to make a meaningful impact as it only sustains the operations of SAPO for just one additional month and does not go far enough to address the challenges facing the post office.
 
The announcement coincides with the committee’s oversight visit at SAPO and is an unfortunate practice developed by this Ministry to govern by public relations, as in the SITA case, as they issue erratic statements designed with the intention to be seen as bold actions which coincide with the committee oversight visits. These statements serve no value except to kick the can down the road and distract from the real work that needs to be done.
 
Ms Diko said that the committee reaffirms its call for speedy resolution of the challenges at SAPO.
 
Today, the committee received a briefing on the long-awaited turnaround strategy after months of advocating for the South African people to be taken into confidence on a road map to return SAPO to solvency, liquidity and be future proofed. While it is a small step forward, the strategy to a large extent, still relies on the appropriation and disbursement of the R3.8 billion bailout from the national fiscus. This amount is said to be needed to cover the operational shortfall, payments to statutory creditors and infrastructural investment. The National Treasury is on record saying it is not the ideal intervention.
 
The committee welcomes rather the interventions undertaken by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, in line with the recommendations of the committee, for government to intervene directly in the SAPO by establishing a Joint Committee on Partnerships mandated to proactively consider strategic, value adding partnerships with the intention to deliver on some of the areas the Business Rescue Practitioners claim to require R3.8 billion for.
 
Mr Diko further said that the committee will closely monitor this process to ensure it delivers on the aspiration of a modern, repurposed Post Office of the digital age.
 
“The Committee will continue to pursue its interest in a joint meeting with the Standing Committee on Appropriations to engage on the role of the National Treasury in the quest to turnaround in its Portfolio including SAPO and the SABC amongst others,” said Ms Diko.
 
During the oversight visit at SAPO, the committee also engaged with the organised labour and the representative of non-unionised staff to be appraised on issues affecting the workers due to SAPO’s current situation, which include arbitrary retrenchments and payment of pension funds, amongst others.  
 
The committee will then take the matter up with the department for a response and way forward.

Issued by the Parliamentary Communication Services on behalf of the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, Khusela Sangoni-Diko