The South African Post Office is an integral part of the government delivery machine. The past few months have been characterised by a deepening state of instability, leading to poor delivery of services. The SA Post Office has been plagued by prolonged strikes and poor financial and internal controls.
The State has resolved to intervene to rescue this critical asset that is very important to the economy of South Africa and the lives of the marginalised communities, especially those in rural areas.
In this intervention, Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Siyabonga Cwele and Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene are working closely under the supervision of the Presidency.
The Ministers have appointed Dr Simo Lushaba to lead a technical team that will move to assure financiers and other stakeholders of the rescue plan and government’s commitment to it. The technical team has three months to achieve the following:
1. Stabilise the organisation by employing measures to resolve the strike
2. Assess capacity at management level and fill vacant positions
3. Employ urgent strategies for short-term gains to reduce further financial bleeding
4. Develop a business case that would underpin Treasury support
5. Facilitate the process of resolving leadership instability
6. Finalise the annual report of the SAPO and table it in Parliament
7. Urgently finalise the cases against the suspended CEO and other executives
8. Meet clients to discuss their future needs
9. Restore public and business confidence in the post office
Minister Cwele met Members of the Board of Directors of the South African Post Office this afternoon. The Board Members took a decision to resign with immediate effect. Minister Cwele accepted their resignations and thanked them for their service. The Board Members took this decision in order to allow Minister Cwele an opportunity to implement his intervention to assist SAPO with its current challenges and bring stability to the company. The board members have expressed their support of the intervention by Minister Cwele and have agreed to individually avail themselves to assist in this process if and when required.
"This intervention forms part of a suite of targeted activities Government is implementing to help troubled State-Owned Companies to deliver the services they are mandated to," said Minister Cwele.
"The unprotected and violent strike at the post office has caused a lot of harm to many citizens, long-distance students, businesses - especially the small and medium-sized ones, the diplomatic community and most of all the workers of the post office and the company itself," said Minister Cwele.
He said the post office has to work very hard to regain the confidence of the public and for it to become the centre of access to government services that it can become.
The Minister has thanked all workers who have returned to work and continues to call upon all workers participating in the current unprotected strike to return to work immediately in order to allow this process an opportunity to effectively assist SAPO.
Stabilising the SA Post Office is a matter of national interest and it is critical that all stakeholders must work together to solve the challenges that currently plague SAPO.
Further details on the SAPO intervention will be announced in due course.
Brief CV of Dr Simo Lushaba
Dr Simo Lushaba graduated with a Bsc (Honours) in Advanced Biochemistry from the University of Zululand. He holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Wales University and a Doctor of Business Administration from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He also holds a designation of Chartered Director (South Africa) awarded by the Institute of Directors of Southern Africa.
Dr Lushaba is a business leader that has worked at executive and non-executive levels in South Africa and the Southern Africa Development Community. He was a General Manager responsible for Operations at Transnet Freight Rail and a Chief Executive of Rand Water. He serves a non executive director of Harmony Gold Limited, Cashbuild Limited. He works in the field of corporate governance and facilitates director development programs for the Institute of Directors of Southern Africa. He was a member of the Presidential Review Committee on State-Owned Entities.
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