Takealot to hire 18,000 people including retrenched Post Office workers

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies says it has an agreement with online retailer Takealot that will see the e-commerce giant take on retrenched Post Office staff.

However, the Takealot Group has told MyBroadband that no agreement has been reached as yet, adding that it will continue to collaborate with the department and share more information in due course.

Speaking to the Parliamentary Committee on Communications, director-general Nonkqubela Jordan-Dyani said the agreement is part of the department’s efforts to create jobs in the country.

“We’ve got a Takealot agreement in place. The agreement itself says that they will onboard the previously retrenched South African Post Office members,” said Jordan-Dyani.

“On top of that, there’s still an opportunity and allocation that is for the recruitment of South African citizens as far as the delivery of parcels.”

She said Takealot’s overall estimation is that it is looking to recruit up to 18,000 South Africans as part of its business expansion plans.

“Those are numbers we are also partly tracking when we talk about the 20,000 jobs created,” said Jordan-Dyani.

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies hopes to create 20,000 new jobs in the digital economy during the 2025/26 financial year.

The Takealot Group confirmed to MyBroadband that it is engaged in ongoing discussions with the department. However, it added that no agreement has been reached.

“These discussions aim to support initiatives that empower communities, with a particular focus on upskilling and creating entrepreneurship opportunities for former South African Post Office employees,” it said.

“The details of these initiatives are still under discussion and no agreement and specifics have been reached.”

Takealot said one of the potential avenues it is exploring is the Takealot Township Economy initiative, designed to enable greater participation in e-commerce in the informal economy.

The South African Post Office (Sapo) entered business rescue in July 2023, with appointed business rescue practitioners (BRPs) Anoosh Rooplal and Juanito Damons revealing it was completely insolvent.

Rooplal and Damons also revealed that its debt obligations had risen to R12.5 billion, adding that the Post Office must improve revenue and develop an effective cost structure to become factually solvent.

“The SAPO asset base is dwarfed by its total liabilities of approximately R12.5 billion as of 31 July 2023,” they said.

The BRPs developed a business rescue plan for the state-owned company, which its creditors voted in favour of in December 2023.

Rooplal and Damons’ plan involved restructuring the Post Office to ensure it could deliver on its public mandate. However, this included cutting thousands of jobs at the state-owned company.

Fire 6,000 staff or shut down

Rooplal and Damons’ plan to restructure the Post Office included retrenching staff in two phases over two to five years, starting with a headcount reduction of around 6,000.

This represented more than half of the Post Office’s headcount at the time. According to a November 2023 update from the BRPs, its headcount sat at around 11,048 employees.

The BRPs said the Post Office would focus on up-skilling remaining staff and employ “digital specialists and leaders” to assist with its modernisation in the first restructuring phase.

“Focus will be on improving service delivery levels, which will include increasing its fleet to deliver letters and parcels timeously,” they said.

“New digital products will be considered and launched to increase revenue streams, while automating more of the daily tasks.”

Rooplal and Damons devised a plan to delay Post Office staff cuts by applying to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation & Arbitration (CCMA) for TERS funding.

However, the CCMA wasn’t convinced. It said TERS was revitalised following the Covid-19 pandemic to provide temporary relief as an alternative to retrenchment.

To secure funding, businesses must present a sound plan demonstrating the probability of a sustainable turnaround. In Sapo’s case, it said TERS funding would merely delay the inevitable.

The Post Office started retrenching impacted staff in May 2024. However, the BRPs reduced the number of retrenchments to just under 5,000. “This retrenchment impacts 4,889 employees,” they said.

In June 2024, the BRPs started paying severance packages to retrenched staff, after completing all necessary administrative requirements for paying the first tranche of packages.

“All retrenched staff will, therefore, see the first tranche of their severance packages reflected in their bank accounts from next week,” said Rooplal.

The BRPs said the second and third tranches of severance packages would be paid in September 2024 and November 2024, respectively.

However, in May 2025, the Post Office secured R381 million in TERS funding to provide six months of income support for its staff.

Khusela Diko, chair of the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, described the TERS approval as a “much-needed lifeline that the state is both morally and duty-bound to extend.”

She said the funding took the form of a wage subsidy for nearly 6,000 Sapo employees over a six-month period, adding that it is expected to reduce the Post Office’s cost burden.