Durban — The DA has written to the National Head for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya, requesting an investigation into large-scale fraud at the South African Post Office (Sapo).
It is alleged that the Post Office has not paid R700 million towards its staff medical aid contributions.
According to the DA, about 22 000 people are at risk of losing their medical aid due to Sapo’s greed and incompetence.
The party’s spokesperson on communications, Dianne Kohler Barnard, said the Sapo representatives admitted that the board was fully aware that the medical aid contributions were not being paid.
“During this week’s parliamentary communication portfolio committee meeting, they (Sapo representatives) claimed that the portion paid monthly by staff members and deducted automatically from their salaries, was paid to the medical aid, but that it was the 2/3 portion which was supposed to be paid by the Sapo, which was not paid. It had not been paid for so long that the debt had racked up to a staggering R700 million.
“The claim was then made that they were talking to the medical aid about the situation. It was stated that the contributions were not paid because the Post Office does not make enough money. This seems to be fraud on a grand scale,” said Barnard.
Barnard said it was for this reason that they requested a Hawks investigation as a matter of urgency.
She further stated that there were claims in a report before the portfolio committee which showed that pension contributions, UIF, PAYE and VAT were also not paid.
“Not only has the Post Office been in an array and a state of dysfunctionality for a decade, but it has proven to be just another failed ANC state-owned enterprise. Since I have been assigned to this portfolio a few weeks ago, my inbox has been filled with appeals from all over the country that the only local Post Office has been summarily closed.
“In one particular instance, it is claimed that a Post Office in Underberg was closed because the rent had been unpaid for over a year. The property had been rented since 2015, but in the last few years, the payments for rental, electricity and water were irregular and have in most cases not been paid at all. The debt now stands at a whopping R243 010.58. The owners of these Post Offices are simply told that there are no funds available,” said Barnard.
Barnard said the Sapo had to decide whether it is privatised or shut down completely. She added that South Africans were angered that further millions of their hard-earned tax money were spent on bailing out yet another collapsing SOE.
“This after a cool R80 billion just was not enough to turn the entity around. Despite receiving this king’s ransom, they still managed to rack up a loss of R1.7bn in 2020, with an even bigger loss projected for 2021.
“South Africans are struggling to put food on their tables, and nothing can excuse the pouring of millions down the drain of this particular bankrupt vanity project, especially when the money is not being used to pay the creditors the billions they are owed,” said Barnard.
She said the Hawks would soon reveal who was scoring from the alleged fraud.
Daily News