SA Post Office prepares for life after business rescue, but still in ‘high care’

The South African Post Office is seeking a high court order to bring its business rescue process to an end, saying the intervention has stabilised its financial position and improved its operations.

Joint business rescue practitioners Anoosh Rooplal and Juanito Damons launched an application in the high court in Pretoria on June 12 seeking to terminate its business rescue proceedings.

The Post Office said the practitioners had also handed the organisation over to a newly appointed board and a high-care leadership team as a going concern.

The application marks a significant step for the Post Office, which was placed in business rescue in July 2023 after the government intervened to prevent its liquidation.

The court application does not mean the Post Office has already formally exited business rescue. The practitioners are seeking an order to terminate the proceedings after substantially implementing the adopted rescue plan.

Speaking to Business Day TV, acting CEO Fathima Gany said the organisation was preparing for life after business rescue but warned that its exit would not mean the Post Office had immediately returned to normal operations.

“Business rescue has brought some stability because it works within the framework so some of the chaos gets frozen,” Gany said.

She described Sapo’s current position as a “high care” environment, comparing the organisation to a patient leaving intensive care who still requires close monitoring to ensure its recovery is sustained.

“Coming out of business rescue does not assume normalised operations. It does mean that it’s a high-touch environment that’s very much like a patient in a hospital that you would devote your energy to ensure that it stays alive,” she said.

The business rescue process has materially improved its financial position. Its net asset position improved from a deficit of R7.9bn to a positive R840m, while creditor debt was reduced from about R8.7bn to R440m. Revenue for the year ended March 2026 increased to R1.54bn.

However, the Post Office has yet to reach profitability. The organisation recorded a loss of R71m in the latest financial year, although this was a significant improvement on the R514m net loss recorded in the previous financial year.

Gany said the next phase would require the Post Office to rethink what a national postal operator should look like in an environment where traditional letter volumes have declined and digital services have transformed the way people communicate.

“The perception is that we want to create a post office or recreate a post office that we once had which was very glorified,” she said.

“The question should be, what should a national post office look like now? And increasingly I think that the answer would be access.”