The South African Post Office (Sapo) is hoping for clarity on how it will afford the retrenchment of thousands of employees by next week as it turns to the National Treasury to help fund the process.

Post office spokesperson Johan Kruger told TimesLIVE the entity has 13,500 employees. To get to its desired employment register of 9,600, about 3,900 employees need to be retrenched.  

The retrenchment figure has been brought down from 6,000 due to 1,724 employees having left the company after being offered severance packages, Sapo CEO Nomkhita Mona said.  

Speaking on eNCA, Mona said the number of retrenchments had also decreased because of some people retiring.

Sapo was not able to fund severance packages for the thousands of employees in the retrenchment process. She said it had applied to Treasury for additional funding.  

“We cannot afford to retrench and we have asked the National Treasury to assist us. As we are stuck with this process, we are going to need money so that we can fund it.”  

She said the retrenchments would take at least three months to complete.  

“We are waiting for the minister’s [finance minister Enoch Godongwana] speech to hear what the Treasury will decide.”  

Kruger told TimesLIVE Sapo would have a clear picture of how to proceed only after Godongwana’s budget speech next week.  

“There is still the opportunity for employees to apply for a voluntary severance package.”

Kruger said retrenchment plans started in November 2022 when they had more than 15,000 employees.  

“The post office is obliged to take these steps for reasons of cost. The post office has been successful in cutting other costs, reducing expenses to 25% below budget. However, the salary cost makes up 68% of total expenditure and needs to be addressed urgently.” 

While Sapo plans to proceed with retrenchments, earlier this week TimesLIVE reported that trade unions rejected the move.