SOUTH AFRICAN POST OFFICE IS STUMBLING

Congress of the People repeatedly drew the attention of government, media and the public that the South African Post Office was in dire straits. Even so, the government kept assuring the nation that the situation was improving and thereby allowed the crisis to deepen even further.

Now that SAPO has given workers only half their monthly remuneration, COPE calls on the government to show solidarity with the affected workers and to take only half a pay cheque as well. It cannot be fair that people in government, the main cause of the collapse of this and other institutions in our country through ill advised cadre deployment, continue to enjoy life as normal while the lives of workers at SAPO are turned totally upside down. By commission and omission, the Zuma administration has caused SAPO to stumble.

The Zuma administration is leading the country toward a fiscal cliff. We made this point repeatedly in our 2014 election campaign but then, as now, no one seems to believe that South Africa is indeed headed in that direction. Anyway, we will persist in warning the nation to brace itself for fiscal turmoil in the new year.

SAPO has to take on partners from the private sector. In our view 51% of the shares in the post office should have been sold at the beginning of the crisis. Now its value will have tumbled considerably. SAPO is on its knees.

If the Minister does not act decisively he must take the blame for the shambles that SAPO is in and he must do the honourable thing: resign immediately. SAPO is stumbling and government just sat back and watched..

Issued by Dennis Bloem, COPE Spokesperson, 26 October 2015