South African government institutions must use the Post Office so that the state doesn’t have to bail out the operator of the postal services, according to a new draft Bill published for public comment on Wednesday.
The South African Post Office SOC Ltd Amendment Bill calls on government institutions which include national and provincial departments, national and provincial government components, and municipalities are encouraged to utilise services offerings by the Post Office and its infrastructure in the delivery of their services.
The draft Bill also calls for government institutions to set-aside certain services to be provided by the Post Office to assist in eliminating over-reliance on government funding by the Post Office.
Last year, the South African Government paid R1.8 billion to bail out the Post Office.
The Bill seeks to amend the South African Post Office SOC Ltd Act, 2011, so as to provide for the revised duties and expand on the mandate of the South African Post Office.
It also seeks to find a way to repurpose the Post Office infrastructure to provide diversified and expanded services and exploit the Post Office infrastructure capacity to extract value and forge relations with other stakeholders.
Furthermore, the Bill seeks to provide for the revised governance structure of South African Post Office and for the appointment and functions of the Stamp Advisory Commi
