Tebogo Msimanga |
The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it condemns the South African Post Office (SAPO) plan to retrench 6 000 of its employees. The opposition party said this is happening as South Africa is suffering from a catastrophically high unemployment rate.
DA Shadow Minister of Communications Dianne Kohler Barnard said last month the DA reported that the SAPO was planning on cutting staff salaries by 40%, while the CEO receives a salary of almost R4 million rand.
“The Treasury had projected that the number of SAPO employees would shrink from 16 275 in 2021/22 to a projected 10 254 in 2024/25. This meant that some 40% of positions would be cut”.
Now it has been revealed that they indeed plan to retrench 6000 employees, while it is still not even clear if the CEO has taken a pay cut in the wake of these developments.
Barnard added that the cutting of these jobs will not only have a major impact on the employees but also on the communities who desperately depend on the Post Office to collect their grants and parcels.
Barnard further said the DA has now submitted numerous Parliamentary Questions to the Minister regarding the situation at SAPO and they would also like to reiterate their stance, “that should these salary cuts and retrenchment go ahead while the CEO and her management team live in luxury, we will be reporting the SAPO to the Department of Labour, the CCMA and the Public Protector”.
