RP Calls for Post Office to be Sold or Given Away

Referendum Party calls for Post Office to be sold

South Africa should not spend R4bn to bail out a Post Office which is no longer fit for purpose and which will never become so as a state owned entity. Instead it should be sold or even given away if necessary. 

RP leader Phil Craig says, “I can send a package anywhere in South Africa overnight for less than R100, but the Post Office can take months to deliver a letter if it can manage it at all. The Post Office is a perfect example of all that is wrong with South Africa. The asset rich market leader with a state monopoly cannot make a profit whilst the private sector is thriving and delivering a superior service. No amount of money will save the Post Office from the South African disease. Aaron Motsoaledi should take note.”

The Post Office is a cautionary tale. The whole concept of mail has fundamentally and irrevocably changed over the last 30 years, and the rate of change will only accelerate. As a state owned monopoly, the Post Office has been insulated from the need to innovate and adapt and as a result it hasn’t. Instead, ideology and politics have taken preference over commercial realities and common sense.

Craig says, “We recognise that the Post Office may have a societal role to play beyond delivering mail, but allow the private sector to run an efficient and profitable service free from government interference and let the state procure any additional functions they require on a commercial basis. We have better things to do with R4bn than to throw it into a bottomless pit of state inefficiency.”

DATE: 04 September 2024

RP is responding to this news event:

https://www.news24.com/fin24/companies/mps-stunned-as-post-office-warns-of-liquidation-within-a-month-without-r4bn-bailout-20240904