South African government refused to sell Post Office for R5.22 billion in Alibaba deal

[Luis]

South African government said no thanks to R5.2-billion offer for Post Office

The former CEO of the SA Post Office (SAPO), Mark Barnes, said he had tabled a proposal to buy the ailing institution for R5.22 billion with the help of Alibaba, which the government refused.

Speaking to veteran journalist and former Business Day editor Peter Bruce in a podcast for Business Day, Barnes said he made the proposal about a year after he resigned in 2019.

 

[ShaunSA]

Why not hand the entire country over to the Chinese Mark

 

[Scooby_Doo]

Why not hand the entire country over to the Chinese Mark

Honestly. That's better than the ANC.

 

[*SynergyX*]

would the 40 thieves come as part of the deal ... would be perfectly in line with how things work over here

 

[system32]

Why not hand the entire country over to the Chinese Mark

Selling Post Office for R5.22b to Mark + Alibaba, is not the same as "handing over" and makes financial sense.
Would you be happier

• Selling Post Office for R5.22b to Mark + Fedex
• Selling Post Office for R5.22b to Mark + Alibaba
• Letting Post Office collapse and sink more taxpayer money

Much better to sell Post Office for R5.22b than asking taxpayers to continuously bail out the Post Office until post office collapses completely and is worth zero.

As a taxpayer, I'm fed up with paying taxes to fund the Post Office (R10.4b), SAA (R49b), Eskom (R496b), Denel (R8.95b), etc

 

[dualmeister]

which the government refused

It is easy when it is not your own money that you are flushing down the toilet.

 

[Corelli]

Honestly I wouldve said no as well.

The CourierGuy would be my main choice, and scrap the SASSA payments, and separate the Post Bank, and just run it as a postal courier service with various drop boxes where you can fetch your items from.
Alibaba is actually going down the drain for once, Their share price will probably halve this year as well.

 

[neoprema]

the problem is, with selling it - Alibaba would turn it into a profitable company.

By keeping it, we keep bailing it out and they keep making millions through dodgy tenders...

 

[Carl_Johnson]

Alibaba. The deal probably fell through when our dearly beloved cadres in the government realized that there were in fact no magical lamps included.

 

[Bad Ballie]

Why do the right thing, when you can continue to milk the cow of failed SOE's and loot billions more.

 

[Swa]

Of course they said no...

 

[Swa]

Honestly I wouldve said no as well.

The CourierGuy would be my main choice, and scrap the SASSA payments, and separate the Post Bank, and just run it as a postal courier service with various drop boxes where you can fetch your items from.
Alibaba is actually going down the drain for once, Their share price will probably halve this year as well.

That is not the reason though.