PRETORIA, Gauteng – A group of former South African Post Office employees staged a protest outside the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, calling for the settlement of unpaid pensions and benefits tied to past retrenchments and voluntary severance arrangements.
The demonstrators, who assembled earlier today, say they remain owed compensation for periods spanning 2020 through 2024. Despite the Post Office receiving R2.4 billion in business rescue funding, the workers contend that promised payouts were never fully disbursed to them.
Jackie, representing the protesting former employees, outlined the group’s core demands: full payment of outstanding balances and transparent accounting statements. “We are demanding our outstanding balance which we are owed by the Post Office from 2020 until 2024,” she stated. Amounts vary by individual, with some claims exceeding R100,000 based on salary levels and length of service—some protesters contributed up to three decades to the organization.
According to Jackie, previous engagements with the Post Office’s business rescue practitioners and the Minister yielded assurances that payment would follow once treasury allocations were received. However, she noted a proposed settlement of “only 18 cents on the rand” was negotiated between the department and unions—an arrangement the protesting workers reject because they were not consulted. “We were not part of their agreement,” Jackie emphasized. “Even if they reached an agreement, we who were already retrenched were not included.”
The group is also seeking clarity on how their final payouts were calculated. “We don’t even have statements to show that we got this much money, you are left with this much money,” Jackie explained. “All we want is our money and our statements so we know how much we are getting.”
The protest includes not only retrenched staff but also former employees who accepted Voluntary Severance Packages (VSSP) and remain unpaid. Jackie called for broader governmental oversight, urging the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to examine operations at the Post Office. “We demand the SIU must come to Post Office and see what is happening because there’s a lot of corruption,” she said, adding that both the retrenchment and VSSP processes lacked fairness.
The demonstrators further appealed directly to Mr. Mkhwanazi for intervention. “We are requesting you to also intervene on the issue of Post Office,” Jackie stated. “We are willing to inform you and tell you what is happening at Post Office.”
As part of their next steps, the group plans to formally submit a memorandum to the department and seek backing from additional stakeholders should their demands remain unmet. The protest underscores ongoing tensions surrounding the state-owned enterprise’s restructuring efforts and the unresolved financial claims of former staff.