SAPO IS LITERALLY DISINTEGRATING

18 September 2015

If rule of law collapses and creditors go unpaid, institutions collapse. That is

what is happening at the South African Post Office. SAPO is not honouring its commitments and it is frustrating unpaid suppliers.

 SAPO’s failure to pay its creditors resulted in Siemens switching off its huge sorting machines. Over the last few days, to make the situation even more perilous for SAPO, the company supplying forklifts started to take most of them away. They too waited endlessly for payment and lost whatever shred of hope was left. This will make it impossible for SAPO to both load and offload its trucks quickly and efficiently. Postal services will collapse. Christmas gifts will remain undelivered. Jobs will disappear.

SAPO, shockingly, has not paid some creditors for more than a year now. This does not faze the ruling party at all. Accustomed over a long period of time to getting bail outs, SAPO is begging treasury for R500-million. Treasury, unfortunately, has no capacity to assist and even if it did SAPO’s problems exceed the amount it is seeking by at least thrice that amount.

SAPO is disintegrating.

Congress of the People has repeatedly urged the ruling party to bring in private sector involvement. Each month’s delay is destroying SAPO’s viability as a business as customers are already going elsewhere. SAPO needs private sector capital and private sector quality management. Ruling party cadres are totally unequal to the task.

A company that is so laden with debt, as SAPO is, and which cannot generate adequate revenue will obviously get ejected from premises for not paying rent, get the forklifts it needs taken away and see the sorting machines it previously used, switched off. All of this is terribly demotivating for staff to witness. Jobs are at stake. Businesses relying on SAPO are in trouble.

 Why is the President Zuma not firing Minister Siyabonga Cwele ? Is it because he is part of President Zuma's inner circle? Under his watch a once well run entity is now sinking deeper and deeper into abysmal failure. How much greater must the disaster become at SAPO before the ruling party will act?

SAPO is disintegrating fast.

Statement issued by Dennis Bloem, COPE Spokesperson, September 18 2015