COSATU decries the dearth of leadership and deficiency of principles at the South African Post Office
The Congress of South African Trade Union’s {COSATU} national leadership and the leadership of its affiliate the Communication Workers Union {CWU} convened an emergency special meeting yesterday, 27 October 2015, to discuss the crisis at the South African Post Office {SAPO}. This follows the unilateral decision by the South African Post office management ,to criminally and illegally pay workers only a portion of their salaries for the month of October 2015. They paid them 70% of their salaries on pay day, and have subsequently paid them the remaining 30% today; after initially proposing that this portion be paid on the 31st of October 2015.
This has negatively affected workers because their debit orders and other financial obligations are timed to take place on pay day, which is the 25th of each month. Workers livelihoods and those of their families have been compromised and negatively affected by this absurd unilateral decision. It is preposterous that workers are being made to pay for the mistakes of the management. Workers did their duties with honesty and dedication and they do not deserve to be treated with such utter disdain.
The combined union leadership resolved in the meeting that they will demand an emergency meeting with the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Mr Siyabonga Cwele. The minister needs to account on what is happening and also provide political leadership and intervention on this matter.
This is both morally and legally wrong and points to the dearth of leadership and the deficiency of principles at the Post Office. The nefarious activities taking place within the SA Post Office, are not just an innocent case of bureaucratic incompetence and bungling, but are also motivated by anti-worker and anti-union sentiment running through the institution.
This offensive against the workers by management, is an attempt to de-unionise the Post Office and kill the voice of the workers within the institution.
We want to make it clear that as a federation of workers, we will not tolerate this level of union bashing and we will bring the battle into the doorstep of those who are hell-bent on victimising workers.
All of this has also exposed government’s failure to acknowledge and realise the strategic importance of the SA Post Office; to service delivery and to the ANC’s development agenda. This is the only institution that has broad and extensive outreach ,even to the remote rural corners of our country. Millions of South Africans, who study through distance learning, have been compromised by the deterioration of the SA Post Office.
The fact that this collapse is allowed to take place is an indictment on our government. It proves that government does not have confidence in government institutions. We have long called for the re-orientation of the post office and other government institutions like it. They should be focused on improving access and affordability of services to the people.
The government should be the SA Post Office’s first client and all other institutions should follow government’s lead. The ANC’s commitment to fighting corruption has been tested and found wanting by the collapse of the Post Office. How is it possible that an institution under financial distress can be allowed to leave its headquarters, which it owns, to go out and rent new offices that are straining its already depleted resources?
We demand to know what happened to both the Public Protector and the Special Investigations Unit reports. Those two institutions investigated the SA Post Office and their reports were not released. We demand to know what is contained in those reports.
What is obvious from the Post Office calamity is that those, who have been tasked with the responsibility to intervene at SA Post Office, have not just failed, but they have also wasted the institutions resources. What kind of a turnaround strategy exacerbates an already worse situation?
This goes against the commitments made by the ANC, through its resolutions, in its 53rd Mangaung Conference. In that conference the ANC committed to using the Post Office to roll out a national address system which was to target the poor rural areas and informal settlements.
It also condemned what it viewed as an attack on the postal services, in favour of neoliberal policies. It promised to strengthen the Post Bank, as an important institution of development. There was a commitment that through its massive and extensive network, the Post Office was to be used as a pay point for many government services including municipality bills and traffic fines.
The Post Bank was to be granted a licence, and it was supposed to be used as a strategic tool that allows the public sector a footprint in the financial sector; and therefore allow for the possibility in practice, to redefine the rules to make banking accessible and affordable.
None of this will be realised if the state of the Post Office is allowed to deteriorate as it is currently happening. We demand that the ANC led government show its commitment to the Mangaung resolutions by intervening with immediate effect.
Issued by COSATU National Spokesperson Sizwe Pamla, 28 October 2015
