'Post Office remains in business rescue, no liquidation papers have been filed'

The joint business rescue practitioners (BRPs) of the South African Post Office (SAPO) say that, while a covering letter was sent to the Communications Ministry about the future of the state-owned entity, this was part of ongoing engagements and the Post Office remains in business rescue.

In conversation with Stephen Grootes, BRP Anoosh Rooplal emphasizes that they still consider the entity a valuable asset of the government, but at this stage of the process the Companies Act compels them to consider whether there is any more prospect of success.

"We did receive confirmation from the Minister in December of 2025 that there is no (more) funding. And we have done a lot of work with the government as the shareholder.. but the Companies Act compels us when there is no further funding to meet day-to-day claims and creditor payments... to consider whether there is any more prospect of success, and consider a liquidation position."

"But we have not filed with any court; we have through correspondence liaised with the Department and the Minister in this regard."

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Rooplal highlights that an integral part of the business rescue plan was provision of two tranches of funding, one of R2.4 billion and another of R3.8 billion.

While the first amount was received, the second of R3.8 billion was not, he says, despite the fact that this became binding when the plan was adopted and approved.

The business rescue practitioner hits back at a scathing analysis of their work by former Post Office CEO Mark Barnes, who also went on air with Grootes.

"When we stepped in (December 2023) we found an entity that was in provisional liquidation. The word I like to use is gutted - there was no movement, circar R9 billion of debt on the balance sheet, and one of the key things we had to do was to get creditors to approve their claims and as part of the plan we had to enter into a compromise with these creditors bec if we hadn't done that liquidation would have been a sure thing n 2023."

"As BPS we believe we have provided a vision for the future... Using traditional mail as a yardstick to consider SAPO's relevance as perhaps the public does,, is not correct. One needs to look at the potential it has, the ability to diversify the business. Other post offices in the world saw this trend coming and pivoted off into digital services, financial services, etcetera. SAPO was unfortunately too slow to do that, hence its troubles..."

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interviews with Barnes and Rooplal