{"id":388698,"date":"2021-03-09T10:00:42","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T08:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=388698"},"modified":"2021-03-09T10:02:19","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T08:02:19","slug":"sa-post-office-closing-branches-because-it-cannot-pay-rent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/government\/388698-sa-post-office-closing-branches-because-it-cannot-pay-rent.html","title":{"rendered":"SA Post Office closing branches because it cannot pay rent"},"content":{"rendered":"

The South African Post Office (SAPO) is on the verge of financial collapse and has closed numerous branches after failing to pay rent.<\/p>\n

A recent presentation at the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee revealed just how big a financial mess the Post Office is in.<\/p>\n

Over the last three months, the Post Office posted a net loss of R429 million, while its year-to-date net loss increased to R1.354 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe year-to-date revenue recovery remains sluggish and insufficient to meet all operating costs,\u201d the SAPO said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe revenue shortfall contributes to cash deficits to pay suppliers and service providers, including employee benefit contributions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The South African Post Office\u2019s creditors and accruals as of 30 September 2020 increased to R1.774 billion.<\/p>\n

One of the results of this financial crunch is that the SA Post Office is not paying rent<\/strong><\/a> and has closed around 55 branches because of arrears.<\/p>\n

Some landlords have even seized equipment and kicked out the Post Office from their malls for not paying rent.<\/p>\n

Notices on the doors of many SA Post Office branches now state \u201cClosed until further notice\u201d without a clear indication of where people can now get services from.<\/p>\n

The SA Post Office previously told MyBroadband it is in discussions with the landlords to resolve the disputes with the intention of re-opening the branches.<\/p>\n

Employees are also suffering. Pension fund and medical aid contributions are deducted from workers\u2019 salaries, but this money is not paid over to the relevant institutions.<\/p>\n

David Mangena, general secretary of the South African Postal Workers Union, told Rapport the Post Office has failed to make payments for some workers as far back as March 2020.<\/p>\n

Mangena added that communication with the institution has broken down and that they had to hear via the media about the new Post Office CEO.<\/p>\n

The financial collapse of the Post Office should, however, not come as a surprise.<\/p>\n

DA\u2019s shadow deputy minister of communications and digital technologies, Cameron MacKenzie, warned earlier this year<\/strong><\/a> the institution was on the brink of collapse.<\/p>\n

MacKenzie said the Post Office was struggling with unpaid rentals, desperate suppliers, postal backlogs, and broken ICT systems.<\/p>\n

The SAPO, MacKenzie said, is facing bankruptcy despite receiving R8 billion in bailouts since 2014.<\/p>\n

He said in the absence of any further funding and expenses far exceeding revenue, the Post Office is resorting to the only means to stay afloat – stop paying creditors.<\/p>\n

MacKenzie urged the government to start implementing productive public-private partnerships and social compacts to save the SA Post Office.<\/p>\n

\"Nomkita<\/a><\/p>\n

The SA Post Office is hanging its hat on its newly appointed CEO, Nomkhita Mona<\/strong><\/a>, to solve these problems.<\/p>\n

Mona has served as the CEO of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber since December 2017, following three years at the helm of the South African Forestry Company (SAFCOL).<\/p>\n

She has also been CEO at various other organisations \u2013 including The UDDI, Inkezo Land Company, and the Eastern Cape Tourism Board.<\/p>\n

MyBroadband asked the SA Office for comment about its financial challenges, but it did not respond by the time of publication.<\/p>\n

Now read: SA Post Office on the brink of collapse<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pension fund and medical aid contributions are deducted from workers\u2019 salaries, but this money is not paid over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":385336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18668],"tags":[35,68812,16590,23369],"class_list":["post-388698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline","tag-nomkhita-mona","tag-sa-post-office","tag-south-african-post-office"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388702,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388698\/revisions\/388702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}