South African Post Office service delivery improving

The South African Post Office (SAPO) says it is has made tremendous progress on transformation and is committed to break even by March 2004.

SAPO Chief Executive Officer Maanda Manyatshe told Parliament yesterday that over the past three years, remarkable progress had been made in the transformation process of the Post Office.

‘Significant progress has also been made in turning around the Post Office with the reduction of operational losses, which were hampering the company from delivering on its mandate,’ he said.

Mr Manyatshe said the Post Office intended to reach a point where its revenue activities funded its operations.

He said the financial report of the Post Office issued in March 2001 reflected a loss of R577.4- million.

In March 2002, the Post Office had a loss of R350.5-million while in March 2003 it had a loss of only R154.6 million.

‘The reduction in operating losses has been complemented by Post Office’s soaring revenue, which has grown by 6.8% in the 2002/2003 financial year while operational cash of R118- million was generated in the same year,’ Mr Manyatshe said.

He said another positive development for SAPO was the increase in the Post Bank’s deposits that had shown growth of R189-million.

He added that staff overheads had been reduced by 2.2%.

He said the organisation would continue its efforts to improve accountability and service delivery.

‘With it’s motto: ‘We will continue whatever it takes’, SAPO has improved its services from 84.46% to 90.83%,’ he said.