{"id":583985,"date":"2025-02-25T12:50:19","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T10:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=583985"},"modified":"2025-02-25T12:50:39","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T10:50:39","slug":"post-office-looking-for-people-with-e-commerce-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/government\/583985-post-office-looking-for-people-with-e-commerce-experience.html","title":{"rendered":"Post Office looking for people with e-commerce experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Communications Minister Solly Malatsi has issued an invitation for candidates to apply for non-executive positions on the South African Post Office&#8217;s (Sapo&#8217;s) board, with one of the top requirements being e-commerce experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Post Office has been eyeing the online shopping space for a while. Management at its KwaZulu-Natal offices recently said focusing on online shopping and protecting its small parcel monopoly would be critical to its survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Malatsi&#8217;s invitation to apply to Sapo&#8217;s board lists several experience requirements, some of which relate to the focus on online shopping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;To fulfil the oversight mandate and advance Sapo&#8217;s objectives, candidates must bring a diverse range of skills, knowledge, and experience essential for overseeing a state-owned institution,&#8221; the invitation reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Candidates should demonstrate a leadership of integrity, transparency, responsibility, accountability, fairness and competence.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The appointments require knowledge, skills, and experience in the following areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>e-Commerce and Digital Postal Services Management<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Logistics Management<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Information Technology (IT) and ICTs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Corporate Governance<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Risk Management<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Financial management, corporate finance and financial governance (accounting, reporting and auditing)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Transactional advisory<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Legal and Corporate Law<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Business Strategy and innovation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Human Resource Management<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Project Management<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Transformation for diversity and equity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Each candidate must also have a minimum of five years of board experience and at least eight years in an executive senior management role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They must also hold a bachelor&#8217;s degree, while a postgraduate qualification in logistics, business strategy and financial management or related environment and public sector governance is considered an advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Preference will be given to candidates who enhance diversity in skills, gender, youth, and disability representation. People with disabilities are encouraged to apply,&#8221; the invitation reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shortlisted candidates will undergo an assessment in line with Bank Act requirements, as well as security clearance and disclosure of business interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Post Office has experienced significant financial difficulty for more than a decade. It last posted a profit in 2013, reported losses of over R19 billion, and accumulated substantial debt since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Solly-Malatsi-closeup.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-555766\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Solly-Malatsi-closeup.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Solly-Malatsi-closeup-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Solly-Malatsi-closeup-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Solly Malatsi, South Africa&#8217;s Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Portfolio Committee member for Communications and Digital Technologies Sibongiseni Vilakaza recently conducted an oversight visit to the entity&#8217;s KwaZulu-Natal offices, where management emphasised the importance of <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/government\/581125-post-office-plan-to-milk-online-shopping-in-south-africa.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/government\/581125-post-office-plan-to-milk-online-shopping-in-south-africa.html\">capitalising on e-commerce<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There was an animated discussion on income generation, with many in attendance believing that it is possible for Sapo to generate sufficient income to sustain itself,&#8221; Vilakazi wrote in his report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Securing the legislated advantages would help improve income.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The local Post Office management said South Africa should protect the institution&#8217;s legislated monopoly over packages under 1kg, adding that Sapo should focus on e-commerce deliveries like other postal services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Post Office has repeatedly argued for its sole right to deliver packages under 1kg, as allowed by a 25-year licence issued under the Postal Service Act of 1998, which expired in 2023 and temporarily extended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, its appalling delivery fulfilment record and reputation for items going missing forced South Africans to turn to alternative courier companies, such as Postnet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This resulted in the Post Office lodging a complaint against Postnet with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The regulator ordered Postnet to cease small parcel deliveries in early 2020. However, the courier secured an interdict, ensuring it could continue to offer the service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the Post Office and Icasa filed dispute papers defending their stance, the case has remained in limbo since Sapo&#8217;s provisional liquidation in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The liquidation was soon overturned and the Post Office placed into business rescue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Malatsi believes the Post Office should prioritise building public trust over protecting the state-sanctioned monopoly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The preferred outcome is for Sapo to get back on its feet by regaining the public&#8217;s trust, including public entities, not through compulsory use of its services,&#8221; the Minister stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is in stark contrast to the Portfolio Committee on Communications&#8217; stance, which previously called for the department to renew the monopoly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Post Office is looking for non-executive board members with e-commerce and digital postal services management skills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":431062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18668],"tags":[98935,10412,76862,22355],"class_list":["post-583985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-delivery-monopoly","tag-online-shopping","tag-solly-malatsi","tag-south-african-post-office-sapo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583985"}],"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\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583985"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":584032,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583985\/revisions\/584032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}