The South African Post Office’s business rescue practitioners have moved to clarify that no court application has been filed for the liquidation of the entity, after confusion arose during a parliamentary committee meeting last week.
Joint business rescue practitioners Anoosh Rooplal and Juanito Damons said in a statement that they had sent a draft application for liquidation to the ministry of communications & digital technologies on 13 March. This was shared as part of ongoing discussions about the Post Office’s funding crisis — not as a formal legal filing.
However, the department of communications presented the documents to the portfolio committee during a meeting the same day, triggering what the BRPs described as a “misunderstanding” about their intent. The BRPs said they were given the opportunity to clarify their position to the committee.
“We are at a sensitive and challenging stage of the business due to the non-receipt of funding from the shareholder,” said Rooplal. “There are no alternative sources of funding due to the restrictions imposed on the business rescue practitioners.”
He said the documents were intended to inform stakeholders of the BRPs’ required next steps under the Companies Act and the consequences of closure, “should it come to that and which we do not relish”.
The Post Office has been in business rescue since July 2023. The process has been hampered by government’s failure to release a R3.8-billion second tranche of funding that was envisaged in the adopted business rescue plan. An initial R2.4-billion was released in 2023 and used to cover retrenchment costs and stabilise operations. National treasury has excluded further funding from three successive budgets.
Catastrophic consequences
The BRPs said they are now required under chapter 6 of the Companies Act to determine whether there is still a reasonable prospect of rescuing the Post Office — a legal threshold that, if not met, obliges them to file for liquidation.
In their draft affidavit, the BRPs detailed what they described as the catastrophic consequences of liquidation. These include the termination of the Post Office’s statutory mandate as the designated universal service provider under the Postal Services Act; the need for amended legislation and regulation following the extinction of the Post Office as designated postal operator; reputational damage to the state; and the non-payment of Sars obligations.
Read: Post Office on the brink of collapse
The BRPs also warned that Postbank would be directly affected because of its reliance on the Post Office’s human resources, payroll and IT systems. Postbank’s operations are also linked to the Post Office’s financial services provider (FSP) licence, which enables financial transactions through Post Office branches. The termination of that licence could disrupt Postbank’s services.
Communications minister Solly Malatsi said on Friday that talk of liquidation was “premature”, pointing to ongoing discussions between his department and national treasury aimed at finding a way forward.
The Post Office remains operational and in business rescue. — © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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