THE new board of the South African Post Office has its work cut out to rescue the parastatal from the brink of financial collapse and address its inability to do what it was established for. The Cabinet announced the new board members on Thursday. New chairman Simosezwe Lushaba was brought in to turn around the Post Office after it was placed under administration in November following a four-month strike that brought mail services to a halt.

The Post Office suffered a net loss of R285m in the first three months of the year, and loses about R100m each month. In the latest of its many debacles, mail deliveries came to a standstill last week when there was no money to buy fuel for the Post Office’s delivery trucks. The Congress of the People (COPE) said in a statement on Friday that the lack of money for fuel provided more proof that SA’s post office services were grinding to a standstill.

"We draw attention to the fact that many suppliers had not been paid for a long while," said COPE spokesman Dennis Bloem. "We have now learnt that all of Siemens’ technical staff in all Post Office sorting centres was retrenched at the end of July. The Siemens sorting machines are now switched off. Siemens had not been paid for a whole year. “The trust in the SA Post Office has evaporated. Government has allowed it to slide to such an extent that rescue attempts will be made enormously difficult. “There was nothing the new board could do to save the Post Office when it had no money, and a government bail-out would not resolve the issue, Mr Bloem said. “How many times was South African Airways bailed out? How many times were Eskom bailed out?" he asked. "The government must honestly tell the people that it has failed."

However, on Friday the Post Office issued a statement assuring its customers that its fleet of delivery trucks would be up and running on Saturday. “We assure customers that our operations are running fully following the resolution of the fleet management operational glitch that caused delays in the conveyance of mail," Post Office acting group CEO Mlu Mathonsi said. Democratic Alliance spokesman on telecommunications and postal services Cameron Mackenzie said he did not believe Mr Lushaba would be able to turn the Post Office around. More than 25,000 municipal account statements are lying undelivered at the Cradock post office in the Eastern Cape, and this could have an effect on service delivery, he said. A group of publishers have vowed to hold the Post Office liable for the effect that its crises have had on their business. Last year Chris Yelland, owner of magazine publishing company EE Publishers, with nine other publishers, filed a complaint about the Post Office with the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa).

The group said it wanted, "Icasa to consider and review its numerous complaints against the South African Post Office and the financial and other damage to the magazine publishing industry caused by its extended failure to meet its licence conditions, and to sanction it accordingly”. If Icasa rules in their favour in the matter, which is still before the courts, the group would pursue civil claims against the Post Office, Mr Yelland said. Communication Workers Union general secretary Aubrey Tshabalala said the union welcomed the appointment of the new board. "The call for a bail-out will gain momentum because there will be people to account for the money."

Article Link: http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/2015/08/17/mountains-to-climb-for-post-office-board