South Africa’s 232-year-old Postal Service is Just Weeks Away from Collapse

SA Post Office interim chief executive Fathima Gany shocked parliamentarians this week by revealing that the business would run out of cash and be liquidated unless it received a $214mn government bailout by the end of next month. Gany told parliament that the organisation had improved since it closed a third of its branches and laid off 4,000 of its 11,000 staff. Yet, she also said it only had “cash reserves up to October”, and business rescue practitioners would be legally obliged to put the Post Office in liquidation unless further finance was forthcoming. The problems at SA Post Office, which first opened its doors in 1792, are the culmination of years of decay. It was placed in a form of bankruptcy protection last year owing R8.7bn to creditors. Its service has also collapsed, and only successfully delivered mail 68 per cent of the time in 2022 due to “delays in mail processing” and “financial challenges”..

FT