It’s time for the post office to be consigned to the post box of history

Here’s another one from the ANC’s “Throwing Good Money After Bad” economic policy department: the woeful loss-making SA Post Office (Sapo) wants another multibillion-rand government bailout.

CEO Nomkhitha Noma told parliament’s portfolio committee on communication that the state entity, deemed commercially insolvent in the past reporting cycle, needed “funding and more time” to fully implement its new strategy and build an e-commerce player.

According to Noma, it wants to be the “post office of tomorrow”.

That’s a supreme piece of undoubtedly unintended irony… When has the post office ever been able to offer a fraction of what the public were offered “in the bad old days”?

ALSO READ: SA Post Office pleads for funding and time to build ‘post office of tomorrow’

ANC cadre deployment – of which incompetence and overstaffing are key attributes – happened just at the wrong time for the organisation as the world logistics chain was moving towards more private courier and freight services.

More than anything, though, the Sapo squandered public trust: parcels either never arrived or were looted and delays in delivery defied rational explanation.

The problem is that many pensions and grants are paid through the organisation. Yet that can be solved by clever, ethical privatisation. It’s time for the Sapo to be consigned to the post box of history.