Note to editors: Please find attached soundbite by Natasha Mazzone MP
The ANC’s attempt to conceal job losses at the South African Post Office (SAPO) has predictably backfired. Despite their efforts, the Business Rescue Practitioners recently announced, quite ironically just before Workers’ Day, that their “final attempt” TERS (Temporary Employees Relief Scheme) application was denied by the CCMA (Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration).
As the CCMA rightly noted, “[The Application] would only delay, not prevent retrenchments, which is against the primary purpose of the scheme”. This is devastating news for the almost 5 000 employees affected and must be directly put at the ANC’s feet. They have wasted more than R10 billion of hard-earned taxpayer funds to only deliver thousands of job losses.
Last year, due to the ANC’s maladministration, SAPO was placed under provisional liquidation for failing to settle its nearly R13 billion debt. To hide their failures then, SAPO was secured a R2.4 billion bailout and placed under Business Rescue. To complete Business Rescue, however, it required an additional R3.8 billion bailout, which is nowhere to be seen, as the ANC has also depleted the national fiscus. We reject more bailouts of the Post Office, as further waste of taxpayer funds.
After three decades of democracy, the ANC’s legacy is economic ruin, and the jig is up.
We will urgently write to the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Mondli Gungubele, to demand answers, specifically on:
- What lies ahead for SAPO’s Business Rescue Process, which the Minister undertook without a workable turnaround plan;
- With SAPO on death’s door yet again, whether it will return to liquidation; and
- What lies ahead for its employees, who have been subject to abuse from ANC charades.
With our National and Provincial Elections imminent this month, it’s high time for the ANC to confront the accountability they’ve long evaded. A vote for the DA will ensure a viable Post Office that partners with the private sector to provide crucial e-services for particularly rural and semi-urban communities; rolls out high-speed internet; provides local deliveries and distributions; as well as brings government closer to South Africans through various municipal functions. We can finally put an end to the ANC’s job-killing sprees and ensure working government institutions for all South Africans.