The blame for the demise and financial predicament in which the South African Post Office finds itself can only be laid at the door of the ANC government.
It is arrogant of the Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, to blame the Post Office’s creditors and other enterprises for it.
The Minister even went so far as to announce that the Post Office’s so-called turnaround strategy will play a key role in economic and digital inclusion aimed at granting rural households access to government services.
This demonstrates just how out of touch the ANC is with reality, seeing as many rural post offices have closed their doors.
The Post Office is supposed to provide an essential basic service – also to more than 7 million SASSA beneficiaries who rely on Postbank to obtain their monthly grants.
A report issued last year confirms that individuals working for Postbank helped crime syndicates to steal more than R150 million in SASSA grants.
The Postbank with its inadequate security also prevented grant beneficiaries from making ATM withdrawals with their SASSA cards in December because a further R18 million had been stolen.
It was reported in 2020 that Postbank’s main key was incorrectly stored during a data centre migration in July 2018 and that 25 000 fraudulent transactions had taken place.
So, SASSA beneficiaries are holding their breath every month when they go to their local post office to draw their money.
It is totally unacceptable that the Post Office was allowed to veer so far off the right track.
If the Post Office does not thoroughly revise its business model, the institution cannot expect a positive outcome.
That will never happen under ANC rule, though. The only solution is to privatise the Post Office and to get rid of the ANC.