SAPO should outsource or privatise aspects of the postal service
4 May 2023
Many post offices have been forced to close down in recent years. According to data compiled by The Outlier, there were 1,512 conventional post office branches and 697 Post Office Agencies in 2018. Today, only 626 post offices are still operational.
South African Post office (SAPO) workers are also facing mass retrenchments and wage cuts, according to a parliamentary report from March this year.
This is despite the fact that over 6.3-million beneficiaries ‒ or 54% of 11.7 million beneficiaries ‒were paid through the Post Office and Postbank in January 2023, the Outlier indicates.
Postbank has stated that around 175,000 cards expired at the end of March. SAPO has started a gradual process to issue new cards and that almost all beneficiaries whose cards expired last month have already received new cards.