Cape Town - Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has been criticised for omitting the broke SA Post Office (Sapo) in his Medium Term Budget Policy Statement speech.
On Wednesday, Godongwana delivered his policy statement – in which he announced bailouts for Eskom, Transnet, Denel and Sanral – against a backdrop of a growing number of post offices shutting down, and as the company struggles to pay workers’ medical aid.
DA MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard, who sits on the communications and digital technologies portfolio committee, spoke to the Cape Argus.
“Sapo owes its creditors R4.3 billion. We waited to see (if Godongwana would address Sapo), but not even a mention of the Post Office. No sign of any bailout there. It doesn’t mean it’s completely off the table. They’ve already received a massive bailout of R6bn before.”
She said the company wouldn’t be deserving of another bailout.
She said the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations, the Hawks, was investigating medical aid fraud in Sapo, which allegedly docks medical aid premiums from workers but has failed to pay R700m due to the Medipos medical scheme.
Kohler-Barnard said one woman’s mother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, was told the Post Office had not paid her medical aid, even though it docked monthly premiums from her salary.
She said cancer survivors were turned away by medical aid because of the Post Office’s failure to pay Medipos.
Communication Workers Union general secretary Aubrey Tshabalala said the union had written to Godongwana to request a bailout, but he had shot down the idea. He suggested he might consider it in the next policy statement.
“I had spoken to the minister and deputy minister about the Post Office a couple of days before the speech. We were briefed that the Budget has already been complete and that’s when we knew we were not getting a bailout,” Tshabalala said.
“Excluding the Post Office for reasons that are self-inflicted (by the government)… it boggles the mind. We are surprised that he (Godongwana) is grandstanding and saying that the Post Office must shape up,” Tshabalala said.
He said the government had over-regulated the Post Office to disadvantage it against private companies, creating an unequal playing field.
At the time of writing, the Treasury media team communications hadn’t responded to a query about why the Post Office was not bailed out.
Godongwana generally addressed the question of assisting struggling state-owned entities in his closing remarks at the joint meeting of the standing committee on finance, standing committee on appropriations, select committee on finance, and select committee on appropriations, yesterday.
He had been asked about underspending and dysfunctional entities.
“You raised a pertinent question: what about state entities that are in dysfunctionality? It’s a tricky question for us. These institutions also report directly to other ministries. For instance, we have just been called to a committee to answer why departments are underspending.
“It would be useful if you, chairperson, can help us so that the relevant portfolio and select committees can begin to hold those departments to account for those issues,” Godongwana said.