Business rescue practitioners for the embattled South African Post Office, Anoosh Rooplal and Juanita Damons, said the first tranche of severance packages for retrenched employees of the state-owned entity is being paid on Friday.

“All retrenched staff will see the first tranche of their severance packages reflect in their bank accounts from next week,” said Rooplal in a statement on Friday.

According to Rooplal, the payments, which come earlier than expected – the first tranche was initially anticipated at the end of June – coincides with a payment to the South African Revenue Service totalling R70-million.

Also paid up are any monies owed to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), which means that former employees can now approach the fund to claim unemployment benefits.

“Ex-employees are requested to continue to liaise with the Post Office Retirement Fund in connection with queries and pension payments. The retirement fund is a separate legal entity and is not in the business rescue practitioners’ control,” the business rescue practitioners said in the statement.

According to the statement, the second and third tranches of severance packages will be paid in September and November, respectively.

These payments come after an attempt in April by the rescue practitioners to save almost 5 000 jobs by requesting access to funds in the UIF Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) failed.

Business rescue

“Should the application for the Ters relief be successful, the bargaining unit employees will have 75% of their salaries paid by the Ters relief money (through the Post Office) and 25% paid by the Post Office for the amount of time that Ters agrees, but no longer than 12 months,” Rooplal and Damons said at the time.

Some 4 870 retrenchment letters, which had been withdrawn as part of the application to the Ters fund, were reinstated after an adjudication committee of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) decided against recommending the granting of the funds.

The Post Office was put under business rescue on 10 July 2023 following litigation by creditors, including landlords to which it owed rent. According to the business rescue plan, the Post Office’s debt amounted to R4.5-billion, with R3.9-billion owed to Postbank and about R400-million owed in rental arrears.