Statement by Bantu Holomisa, UDM President
The United Democratic Movement (UDM) has obtained pictures of crates and bags of thousands of letters and parcels gathering dust at the South African Post Office (SAPO) in Butterworth in the Eastern Cape (see pictures below).
It is no secret that the SAPO has been in trouble for quite some time, but this is next level dereliction of duty.
Interestingly enough, the courier industries in South Africa are flourishing, this whilst the Post Office is languishing, which makes one ask if its inefficiency and bad service is the real reason why it is being made redundant by customers. This is true of the South African Police Services as the security industry is booming and Telkom as well, as cellphone carriers have replaced our main mode of communication.
The Post Office and many other state entities and their infrastructure, that was inherited from the Apartheid government, have been ruined and mismanaged until there is nothing left.
Recently, when the government announced its so-called R3,8 billion business rescue bailout, which is apparently intended to restructure and modernise the SAPO, the UDM is on record saying that this is no way of going about modernising the business. The UDM stated that SAPO must become responsive to its main client base in the rural areas and do market research on what their requirements are in order to develop services that cater to their needs, for example an insurance offer through diversifying their financial services.
But clearly, the critical factor the Post Office needs to take care of is to do their jobs, delivering the mail and packages their customers pay for them to deliver, that is their core business.
Statement by:
Mr Bantu Holomisa, MP
UDM President
