The South African Post Office (SAPO) will continue to maintain its monopoly on certain services, shutting out private courier companies from expanding their offerings to customers, until 2025.
This comes after the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) extended the period of time during which only the post office can provide reserved postal services in the country. The department published its decision regarding the extension to 1 April 2025 in the Government Gazette on Monday.
The department announced in February that it intended to review Section 16(8) of the Postal Services Act, which refers to the period of exclusivity. This section restricts licensed postal service providers, such as couriers, from offering selected services.
These services include the delivery of all letters, postcards, printed matter, small parcels and other postal articles weighing up to one kilogram; the issuing of postage stamps; and the provision of roadside collection and address boxes.
The post office has legally held the exclusive right to be the only provider of these services, but it has never been practically enforced due to the collapse of the state-owned service. This led to the rise of many private courier companies stepping in to fill the gap over the years.
SAPO, supported by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, took PostNet and the South African Express Parcel Association to court in 2018, in a bid to uphold the law and stop them from delivering small parcels. However, the private courier firms won the battle after bigger operators like Takealot joined the court action.
Meanwhile, SAPO, which is under business rescue, has operated at a loss every year since 2013, with deficits running up to more than R19 billion over this period. A further R2 billion loss has been forecast for 2024, according to the DCDT.
