Eeven by the lamentable standards set by the worst-performing among our state-owned enterprises, the SA Post Office is a special case. There have been at least five official strikes at the Post Office since 2011 - not to mention a rash of unexplained stoppages and go-slows. There has also been mismanagement on an industrial scale, entailing losses and the theft of untold millions - borne by taxpayers.New management teams have been wheeled in, ambitious turnaround plans have been tabled, but nothing seems to stop the rot.Each year the sorry state of affairs is perpetuated in what is euphemistically still described as "an essential service".Threatened by the delays and disruptions, many companies that depended on the postal service to do business deserted it, opting for couriers, e-mails and the internet instead.Many citizens have followed suit, or found other means to settle their utility and other bills.These days you can't even depend on the Post Office to deliver vehicle licence-renewal notifications.Tragically, it is mainly the poor, particularly the rural poor, who depend on the Post Office.For this reason, and for the country's reputation as a regional economic powerhouse, it would be a disaster were it to be shut down.The Post Office's new CEO, Mark Barnes, knows this.He and his management team have been trying to reason with the Communication Workers' Union, which has called for another work stoppage at the Post Office - over three-year-old wage demands that have not been met - from tomorrow.Barnes' argument that another protracted strike will damage the Post Office's capital-raising exercise, intended to transform it into a going concern, is compelling.So far the union is having none of it, arguing that the government has bailed out Eskom and SA Airways and should extend the same courtesy to the Post Office.This could turn out to be a dangerous gamble...