Privatise the South Africa Post Office
The Issue
CONTRAST PostNet results with a failing SA Post Office and perhaps the calls to privatise public corporations and high-level thinking revealed in the medium-term budget policy statement should become a reality – perhaps it is time for Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene to step forward.
Frankly the Post Office should be privatised.
Mail users are left with no choice as the postal service has hardly been functional for the past three months. This is a case of a state-owned company that has no immediate choices and no resolution for customers, staff and those most in need of the services that it is meant to provide. High-level resolution of the conflict between making profit and providing a service needs commercial as well as state intervention. This is a great opportunity to unlock the current stalemate and return the postal services to a full service organisation and profitability.
Declining mail numbers are a factor facing many state-owned postal service providers around the world. These commercial pressures are accelerated by labour disputes. Every time a strike occurs, mail volumes drop severely and never recover to their pre-strike action levels leaving lower usage rates and falling revenues. Many in the sector are calling for a removal of the protection afforded to it by the Postal Services Act.
Structurally, the Post Office is unable to provide basic services without subsidised support, which then in turn has a twofold impact on private operators.
On the one hand they are able to take advantage of the subsidised service while on the other hand are prevented from operating in the universal service area profitably. This irrational protectionism both disfavours economic activity and runs counter to private and public interests.
Contrast the Post Office with Deutsche Post, which was privatised in 1994 and is now the world’s largest logistics company with operations in 220 countries and generating revenues in excess of €50 billion (R691.5bn).
A privatised Post Office model, could attract substantial investment and benefits to both public and private sector as a commercially run postal company.
The Issue
CONTRAST PostNet results with a failing SA Post Office and perhaps the calls to privatise public corporations and high-level thinking revealed in the medium-term budget policy statement should become a reality – perhaps it is time for Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene to step forward.
Frankly the Post Office should be privatised.
Mail users are left with no choice as the postal service has hardly been functional for the past three months. This is a case of a state-owned company that has no immediate choices and no resolution for customers, staff and those most in need of the services that it is meant to provide. High-level resolution of the conflict between making profit and providing a service needs commercial as well as state intervention. This is a great opportunity to unlock the current stalemate and return the postal services to a full service organisation and profitability.
Declining mail numbers are a factor facing many state-owned postal service providers around the world. These commercial pressures are accelerated by labour disputes. Every time a strike occurs, mail volumes drop severely and never recover to their pre-strike action levels leaving lower usage rates and falling revenues. Many in the sector are calling for a removal of the protection afforded to it by the Postal Services Act.
Structurally, the Post Office is unable to provide basic services without subsidised support, which then in turn has a twofold impact on private operators.
On the one hand they are able to take advantage of the subsidised service while on the other hand are prevented from operating in the universal service area profitably. This irrational protectionism both disfavours economic activity and runs counter to private and public interests.
Contrast the Post Office with Deutsche Post, which was privatised in 1994 and is now the world’s largest logistics company with operations in 220 countries and generating revenues in excess of €50 billion (R691.5bn).
A privatised Post Office model, could attract substantial investment and benefits to both public and private sector as a commercially run postal company.
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on June 9, 2015