Salary delays fuel crisis at Post Office

THE cash-strapped SA Post Office has gone cap in hand to the Treasury for permission to raise emergency funds after it failed to pay staff on time this week.

THE cash-strapped SA Post Office has gone cap in hand to the Treasury for permission to raise emergency funds after it failed to pay staff on time this week.

Treasury spokesman Jabulani Sikhakhane said no money had been injected, but "the Post Office has been given permission to borrow up to R320-million".

The Post Office blamed a technical glitch for its failure to pay workers on Thursday morning. But a senior insider disputed this, saying: "We are really in trouble. It was a shock for everyone. Salaries are sacrosanct. That is the last thing you touch." Wages were eventually paid on Thursday afternoon.

Spokesman Lungile Lose said funds were available, but on Thursday some payment batches "were not processed successfully".

Lose said the Post Office borrowed as "part of a normal gearing process. If the organisation is in a financial crisis it would not get an overdraft. If it is a crisis, there's a high risk of you not being able to [repay]."

Sikhakhane would not comment on other measures being considered to prop up the beleaguered business. However, the government may throw it a lifeline.

Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Siyabonga Cwele is discussing measures to address the cash crunch with the Treasury. "Right now, the Post Office is undergoing a serious financial crisis whose resolution must be attended to as a matter of urgency," he said at the Communication Workers Union congress this week.

Cwele said the talks were also about a subsidy for postal services in rural areas. "We are overseeing the development of a turnaround strategy, which we hope will return the Post Office to a sound footing."

Cwele's spokesman, Siya Qoza, said the minister was meeting all stakeholders to, among other things, stop intimidation that accompanied postal strikes and "make sure that the Post Office delivers on services".

There have been five long strikes at the Post Office over the past three years. This month alone saw two strikes.

The parastatal generated R6-billion in revenue, and had costs of R6.5-billion in its latest financial year. It is forecast to run at an overdraft of R529-million this year.

Cwele told congress delegates there were challenges at board and management level, with "a culture of no consequence for managerial inaction or mismanagement".

He said the Special Investigating Unit was probing "wrongdoings" in the department and the Universal Service and Access Agency of SA, which he wanted finalised "without any delay so that we can take action".