State doing all it can to stop Post Office liquidation, Gungubele tells MPs

Minister of communications and digital technologies Mondli Gungubele has confirmed to parliament that the Post Office (Sapo) had a provisional liquidation order placed upon it by the courts, but says the government still intends to save the troubled entity and its assets. 

Gungubele was replying orally to questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday afternoon. This after the Pretoria high court appointed provisional liquidators for the Post Office in March. 

ANC MP Hlebani Mthembu asked Gungubele how the provisional liquidation would affect ordinary South Africans and what the conditions were for the R2.4bn grant the Post Office received from the National Treasury.  

Gungubele said government would “do everything possible” to prevent Sapo from being liquidated.  

He added that the R2.4bn grant from the Treasury had a condition of addressing legacy issues, payment of creditors, launching the “Post Office of Tomorrow” master plan and tracking Sapo’s record on meeting bailout requirements. 

“The provisional liquidation of the Post Office has the potential to affect ordinary South Africans who depend on its services. Seven hundred SMMEs that support Sapo as a service provider will be affected.”

He said 6.9-million beneficiaries who received their grants through the Post Office had also been affected.

“No less than 12,000 workers will also be affected,” said Gungubele. 

DA MP Tsholofelo Bodlani asked the minister why the government kept the current Sapo board in place if it hoped to save the entity from mismanagement and the closures of branches. 

“We are appointing a new board. What is existing now is the interim measure of a board until a new board is appointed. As we work on that, the existing board must assist us and clarify the underlying conditions that place us where we are now,” Gungubele replied. 

ACDP MP Steve Swart asked Gungubele if the department would go to the courts on June  1 with an application to have the provisional liquidation removed to prevent a “fire sale of the entity’s assets”. 

Gungubele said the department was assessing its options to find the best solution to prevent the liquidation. 

“We are working on the best possible solution and the primary purpose is to make sure that Sapo doesn’t disappear. So the solution or the option we are going to take will be of such a nature that creditors remain confident of the future of the entity,” he said. 

The minister concluded that for the South African public, businesses and the government, “liquidation is not an attractive option”.

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