DA: No more bailouts for SA Post Office amid looming liquidation
The Democratic Alliance says it believes the South African Post Office should be liquidated.
The postal service has repeatedly made annual losses, while six thousand jobs are on the line due to looming retrenchments.
The state-owned entity is creaking under debt of over R4 billion.
In the latest development, SAPO has been placed under provisional liquidation after a successful court application by one of its creditors.
The DA's Diane Kohler Barnard says it's one of the most mismanaged entities - adding this could be the final straw.
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"While the liquidators seek a pay-out for their client we equally hope that not only are personal debts covered for those who rented properties for Post Office branches, which were then surreptitiously closed, leaving behind massive debts, but that the Post Office employees' and retired workers' medical aid, UIF and pension contributions which the management has carefully and criminally failed to pay over for a number of years, are met in full."
In February, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana set aside a R2.4 billion bailout for the Post Office.
The party says the money should be used to pay benefit contributions for staff and pensioners.
"The DA is against any form of bailout and will write to the Minister of Finance and call on him to confirm that there is no new bailout for SAPO but if there is, it must be used to pay the benefit contributions for staff and pensioners, not to cover SAPO debt to avoid liquidation," says Barnard.
