Barnes’ assessment assumed that each CEO would have been paid R3.96 million per year, roughly what its last CEO was paid in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Communications minister Solly Malatsi revealed the business rescue bill to date in response to Parliamentary questions in late May 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The implementation of the business rescue plan would have been practically impossible for the two BRPs to execute alone,” Malatsi explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2013related costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Post Office warns of high liquidation risk<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/South-African-Post-Office.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If the rescue plan hasn’t fully stabilised SAPO’s finances, lingering financial instability could lead to ultimate liquidation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It added that failing to achieve financial stability would lead to eroding stakeholder trust, the shuttering of critical services, and job losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the Corporate Plan indicated a high risk of liquidation, the South African Post Office’s BRPs recently downplayed that risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result, the minister publicly dismissed talk of liquidation, describing it as “premature”. The BRPs subsequently issued a statement to clarify things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They emphasised their commitment to a successful outcome for the Post Office’s business rescue process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The business rescue practitioners are working with the government to ensure that outcome,” the BRPs said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“However, the BRPs must adhere to the statutory framework within which they operate and which dictates their duties and responsibilities in a business rescue.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They added that no application had been filed with any court for the liquidation of the South African Post Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Post Office CEO Mark Barnes reacted to the news that the entity’s business rescue had cost taxpayers R321 million in three years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":651761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18668],"tags":[52231,32460,88132,34083,3734,22355],"class_list":["post-651668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-anoosh-rooplal","tag-business-rescue","tag-juanito-damons","tag-mark-barnes","tag-post-office","tag-south-african-post-office-sapo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651668"}],"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=651668"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651972,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651668\/revisions\/651972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If the rescue plan hasn’t fully stabilised SAPO’s finances, lingering financial instability could lead to ultimate liquidation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It added that failing to achieve financial stability would lead to eroding stakeholder trust, the shuttering of critical services, and job losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the Corporate Plan indicated a high risk of liquidation, the South African Post Office’s BRPs recently downplayed that risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result, the minister publicly dismissed talk of liquidation, describing it as “premature”. The BRPs subsequently issued a statement to clarify things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They emphasised their commitment to a successful outcome for the Post Office’s business rescue process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The business rescue practitioners are working with the government to ensure that outcome,” the BRPs said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“However, the BRPs must adhere to the statutory framework within which they operate and which dictates their duties and responsibilities in a business rescue.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They added that no application had been filed with any court for the liquidation of the South African Post Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Post Office CEO Mark Barnes reacted to the news that the entity’s business rescue had cost taxpayers R321 million in three years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":651761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18668],"tags":[52231,32460,88132,34083,3734,22355],"class_list":["post-651668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-anoosh-rooplal","tag-business-rescue","tag-juanito-damons","tag-mark-barnes","tag-post-office","tag-south-african-post-office-sapo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651668"}],"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=651668"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651972,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651668\/revisions\/651972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}