Post Office could have paid the salaries of 27 full-time CEOs with the money it spent on business rescue practitioners
Former Post Office CEO Mark Barnes said the R321 million the state-owned company spent on its business rescue over the last three years could have paid the salaries of 27 CEOs.
Barnes served as the South African Post Office’s CEO from 2016 to mid-2019 and recently commented on the business rescue costs reported by the state-owned entity.
“They could’ve employed 27 CEOs, all working there together full time for the last three years, for less. Stop this,” he said.
Barnes’ assessment assumed that each CEO would have been paid R3.96 million per year, roughly what its last CEO was paid in 2022.
Communications minister Solly Malatsi revealed the business rescue bill to date in response to Parliamentary questions in late May 2026.
He said the cost of supporting staff in the business rescue process was the highest at R237.54 million over three years, while the business rescue practitioner fees amounted to R13.72 million.
“The implementation of the business rescue plan would have been practically impossible for the two BRPs to execute alone,” Malatsi explained.
“This necessitated the acquisition of the required resources by the BRPs to ensure both the effective implementation of the business rescue plan and the continuation of operations.”
The South African Post Office entered business rescue in July 2023, and Malatsi’s department appointed business rescue practitioners (BRPs) Anoosh Rooplal and Juanito Damons to lead the process.
The total for disbursements across the three years was R28.01 million, and Malatsi said the 2024/25 financial year was the most costly at R142.48 million.
This represented a significant increase over the 2023/24 financial year, primarily driven by staff support costs, which increased by R42.88 million to R107 million.
The annual business rescue costs were lowest during the 2025/26 financial year. Malatsi revealed that it had spent R82.55 million in the 2025/26 financial year on business rescue–related costs.
Post Office warns of high liquidation risk
The Post Office recently released its Corporate Plan for 2026/27 to 2028/29, in which it highlighted a likely risk of the entity entering liquidation.
The Post Office set achieving financial stability as one of its strategic objectives for the period and highlighted the consequences of failing to achieve it.
“Negative cash flow impacts the ability to meet financial obligations in full, jeopardising the going concern and viability. Insolvency will force the organisation into liquidation,” it said.
“If the rescue plan hasn’t fully stabilised SAPO’s finances, lingering financial instability could lead to ultimate liquidation.”
The entity assigned risk impact, risk likelihood, and risk rating for these consequences, highlighting the risk impact as “severe”, the likelihood as “likely”, and the risk rating as “very high”.
It added that failing to achieve financial stability would lead to eroding stakeholder trust, the shuttering of critical services, and job losses.
The Post Office also warned that customers, suppliers, and potential private-sector partners may grow wary of doing business with a company under scrutiny for financial distress.
While the Corporate Plan indicated a high risk of liquidation, the South African Post Office’s BRPs recently downplayed that risk.
They sent a letter to Malatsi, highlighting the consequences of liquidating the Post Office. However, the letter was misinterpreted to indicate that they were considering liquidation.
As a result, the minister publicly dismissed talk of liquidation, describing it as “premature”. The BRPs subsequently issued a statement to clarify things.
They emphasised their commitment to a successful outcome for the Post Office’s business rescue process.
“The business rescue practitioners are working with the government to ensure that outcome,” the BRPs said.
“However, the BRPs must adhere to the statutory framework within which they operate and which dictates their duties and responsibilities in a business rescue.”
They added that no application had been filed with any court for the liquidation of the South African Post Office.
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