SAPO Medical Aid Debt Ramps Up Alarmingly

Dear Editor

In another hard-hitting question to the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, the DA has exposed that despite 6 months passing since the last follow-up, barely a dent has been made in paying the outstanding medical aid contributions to Medipos, which the South African Post Office (SAPO) owes to its employees.

R561.7 million is still outstanding in medical aid contributions – despite all deductions already being taken off from employees’ pay slips. Worryingly, this is only the historical debt meaning that this does not even include the current monthly payments that need to be made to maintain cover.

The devastating effect of this is that 12 715 principal members are left without proper medical cover in the event of any medical emergency or life-threatening accident. What is even more shocking is that this number includes 1740 pensioners – a particularly vulnerable group of people who often need chronic medication to manage pain or conditions, and they are now forced to dip into what little pension they have to cover their own medication.

In the last 7 months, medical aids have been suspended in every single month at some point between October 2022 and March 2023. It is truly a travesty.

Despite these deplorable conditions, SAPO’s CEO and Executive continue to draw mammoth salaries to the Combined tune of R7.77 million per year between the two of them.

The SAPO is one of the worst-run SOEs and the DA will condemn and fight any further attempt to bailout SAPO, which is now just a bottomless money pit. The ANC policies and the mismanagement of SAPO must be seen for exactly what they are – a failure, and it is time for the ANC and SAPO to privatise certain aspects of SAPO to make it more efficient, otherwise, we will see the loss of thousands of jobs and livelihoods from a liquidation.

Regards

Natasha Mazzone MP
DA Shadow Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies