Question NW1725 to the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies
30 June 2023 - NW1725
Majozi, Ms Z to ask the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies
What steps has the Government taken thus far in bringing to book the persons who were found to be responsible for using the monies that were intended for implementing a turn-around strategy at the SA Post Office (SAPO) for consumption instead of investing it in infrastructure and modernisation, something which has been a contributing factor in the decline of the SAPO and its eventual provisional liquidation?
Reply:
Government has over the years embarked on several interventions to get the South African Post Office (SAPO) back on track and these include a total of R7.3 billion cash injection between 2016 and 2019 during the tenure of the former Group CEO. Unfortunately, despite all the previous Government interventions, SAPO’s recovery has been slow. The entity continued battling to generate enough revenues to fully meet its monthly financial obligations. SAPO’s past management battled to swiftly make capital investments and modernise the entity. They kept maintaining operations under difficult financial challenges and accumulated debts in the process. The past funding allocations which were intended to invest in the turnaround strategy ended up being depleted by operations and debts as the severity of the financial challenges intensified.
No one was brought to book for the non-investment of monies to implement a turnaround as the usage was linked to the cashflow situation. The funds were utilised for operating activities, repayment of terms loans and creditors as the severity of the cashflow situation at SAPO intensified. The situation was exacerbated by the entity’s outdated operating model with high-cost structures. We do acknowledge that better management decisions should have been taken