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Cape Town – Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Siyabonga Cwele, revealed in a response to a Parliamentary question, that the SA Post Office (Sapo) owes almost R245m to more than 2 000 suppliers, and is in arrears of over six months.
In a statement on Wednesday the DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Cameron MacKenzie, said the Sapo was using its suppliers as a second overdraft to float its negative cash flow.
“A further 879 creditors remain unpaid for over 60 days, with 1 804 unpaid for more than 30 days. This total amount owed to creditors for more than 30 days is unclear, but what is apparent is that this amount is much more than the organisation’s total current overdraft facilities at commercial banks, meaning that the Sapo cannot pay its current debts.
“The SA Post Office Strategic Corporate Plan tabled before the Telecommunications and Postal Services Portfolio Committee in May 2015 highlighted that the Sapo was not generating positive cash flows. To this end, the short-term overdraft of R270m was maintained, with further borrowings of R1.2bn guaranteed by government," MacKenzie said.
'Bad to worse'
A fin24 user from Western Canada has spoken out about the degeneration of the Sapo over the years from an outsider’s perspective.
“Over a period of the last four years it has been astonishingly obvious to see that the South African Postal Service has not even remotely lived up to its name but has succeeded in going from really bad to even worse.
“Cards, Seasonal, Condolence, Birthday, Special Occasions, Letters and Parcels either arrive months late or not all. Polite and direct enquiries have been fruitless and have led nowhere. It is essential that the Government correct and rectify this problem or your country will suffer a grievous economic loss.”
In May Sapo projected that it would hit a R1.3bn profit by 2017, and a R1.5bn profit by 2018.
Acting CEO Mlu Mathonsi and interim administrator Simosizwe Lushaba insisted that a massive turnaround was taking place.
The Post Office reported that the group’s preliminary net loss for the financial year to March 31 2015 was about R1.1bn and it was struggling to pay some of its suppliers.
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