Minister Cwele intervenes to stabilise the South African Post Office

For immediate release

07 November 2014
The South African Post Office is an integral part of the government delivery machine. The past few months
have been characterised by a deepening state of instability, leading to poor delivery of services. The SA
Post Office has been plagued by prolonged strikes and poor financial and internal controls.
The State has resolved to intervene to rescue this critical asset that is very important to the economy of
South Africa and the lives of the marginalised communities, especially those in rural areas.
In this intervention, Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Siyabonga Cwele and Finance
Minister Nhlanhla Nene are working closely under the supervision of the Presidency.
The Ministers have appointed Dr Simo Lushaba to lead a technical team that will move to assure financiers
and other stakeholders of the rescue plan and governments commitment to it. The technical team has
three months to achieve the following:
1. Stabilise the organisation by employing measures to resolve the strike
2. Assess capacity at management level and fill vacant positions
3. Employ urgent strategies for short-term gains to reduce further financial bleeding
4. Develop a business case that would underpin Treasury support
5. Facilitate the process of resolving leadership instability
6. Finalise the annual report of the SAPO and table it in Parliament
7. Urgently finalise the cases against the suspended CEO and other executives
8. Meet clients to discuss their future needs
9. Restore public and business confidence in the post office
Minister Cwele met Members of the Board of Directors of the South African Post Office this afternoon. The
Board Members took a decision to resign with immediate effect. Minister Cwele accepted their resignations
and thanked them for their service. The Board Members took this decision in order to allow Minister Cwele
an opportunity to implement his intervention to assist SAPO with its current challenges and bring stability to
the company. The board members have expressed their support of the intervention by Minister Cwele and
have agreed to individually avail themselves to assist in this process if and when required.
"This intervention forms part of a suite of targeted activities Government is implementing to help troubled
State-Owned Companies to deliver the services they are mandated to," said Minister Cwele.
"The unprotected and violent strike at the post office has caused a lot of harm to many citizens, longdistance students, businesses - especially the small and medium-sized ones, the diplomatic community
and most of all the workers of the post office and the company itself," said Minister Cwele.
He said the post office has to work very hard to regain the confidence of the public and for it to become the
centre of access to government services that it can become.
The Minister has thanked all workers who have returned to work and continues to call upon all workers
participating in the current unprotected strike to return to work immediately in order to allow this process an
opportunity to effectively assist SAPO.
Stabilising the SA Post Office is a matter of national interest and it is critical that all stakeholders must work
together to solve the challenges that currently plague SAPO.
Further details on the SAPO intervention will be announced in due course.
Brief CV of Dr Simo Lushaba
Dr Simo Lushaba graduated with a Bsc (Honours) in Advanced Biochemistry from the University of
Zululand. He holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Wales University and a Doctor of
Business Administration from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He also holds a designation of Chartered
Director (South Africa) awarded by the Institute of Directors of Southern Africa.

Dr Lushaba is a business leader that has worked at executive and non-executive levels in South Africa and
the Southern Africa Development Community. He was a General Manager responsible for Operations at
Transnet Freight Rail and a Chief Executive of Rand Water. He serves a non executive director of Harmony
Gold Limited, Cashbuild Limited. He works in the field of corporate governance and facilitates director
development programs for the Institute of Directors of Southern Africa. He was a member of the
Presidential Review Committee on State-Owned Entities.

Issued by the Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal Services