Pretoria – The South African Post Office’s Administration Team has dismissed media reports suggesting that it was responsible for the closure of some of its branches.
“Whilst we are familiar with these business sustainability exercises and understood the rational for the retail network rebalancing exercise that we found underway when we were appointed, the Administration Team decided to discontinue the process in order to investigate possibilities of utilising those branches which were being phased-off for alternative revenue streams,” SA Post Office Administrator Dr Simo Lushaba said.
The Administration Team was appointed in November 2014.
The team said the practice of the SA Post Office’s retail network rebalancing began as early as 2007.
The process was done considering factors such as the need to achieve universal services access, financial sustainability of the business holistically and the sustainability of jobs.
Lushaba said when the Administration Team discontinued the rebalancing process, 29 branches had already been impacted either through amalgamation or consolidation with other existing branches, or completely closed.
“In my knowledge, no employee has thus far lost a job as a result of this process.”
A further six branches had also already been scheduled for amalgamation or consolidation where notices to vacate had been given to landlords and could not be withdrawn.
“We discontinued the branch rebalancing exercise despite the assurances we received from management that the exercise will not result in any material impact on jobs at the SA Post Office, as was the case when the entire rebalancing process that was implemented historically on an on-going basis since 2007,” Lushaba said.
The SA Post Office said that its retail business had a 29 percent vacancy rate, which meant that employees affected by rationalised branches will inevitably be relocated within the retail vacancy base. – SAnews.gov.za
