Communications Workers Union (CWU) President, Clive Mervin says the resignation of South African Post Office CEO Mark Barnes will have a devastating financial impact on the Post Office and its workers.
Barnes resigned earlier on Thursday.
He tendered his resignation citing differences on forward strategy in relation to the structure of the SA Post Office group, in particular the location of Postbank.
“He felt that the Postbank was supposed to be part of the Post Office under the control of the Post Office and so on, but the situation is that, as I speak to you now, is in our annual report which we submitted yesterday. We still have a deficit as the Post Office of R1.1 billion, so which means that Treasury has been saying that would be a risk, to play that oversight role over the Postbank,” says Charles Nwaila, Post Office Board member.
The board has appointed Chief Operating Officer, Lindiwe Kwele as the interim Group CEO until the recruitment process of a new CEO takes place.
Mervin says, “It will have very serious consequences to our members. It will have financial issues on the Post Office because the Post Office cannot stand alone without Postbank. Very soon, we’ll be releasing a statement as an organisation and really call upon the board and the minister to account to us why have they accepted, what are the reasons. Because one of the things workers have said to us is that the Post Office is becoming stable. If you recall Mark Barnes came at a time when there was a crisis in the Post Office. It’s just unfortunate that his resignation happens when we are in the midst of another dispute on the salary negotiations whereby we are going to the CCMA on the 13th.”
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