The South African Post Office (SAPO) says that 235 more post offices are set to close their doors in 2024.
This would result in more retrenchements, after the conclusion of the section 189 process conducted by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
The state-owned entity has been experiencing financial challenges in the last few years, and the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ordered it to be placed under business rescue last year.
A business rescue plan was developed four months later and it was adopted by SAPO creditors in December 2023.
Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Mondli Gungubele said he noted that 235 post offices are due to close across the country, with most of them situated in the Free State and North West – followed by North Gauteng, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga.
Among branches that were expected to be shut, 104 are in the Central region (Free State and North West), 41 in the Northern region (North Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West), 28 in the Western region (Western Cape and Northern Cape), 24 in the Eastern Cape, 21 in KwaZulu-Natal and 17 in Gauteng (most of Gauteng and the Vaal Triangle).
In Limpopo 300 SAPO employees were retrenched at the end of March, having to have their last day at their place of work at the end of April.
Limpopo disgruntled retrenched workers vowed that they would not go down without a fight, laying bare their intentions to go to court to challenge the retrenchments.
Provincial Secretary of the Communication Workers’ Union Amos Tshabalala says the Polokwane and Westenburg branches are the only ones operating.
According to reports the government entity had not been paying their Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) contributions since 2020.
Tshabalala says the Polokwane and Westenburg branches are the only ones operating.
He said that during the past four years they had only deducted money from employees for pension and UIF, but were not paying its subsidy share to the same funds, adding that this will affect the amounts that employees must receive.