Post office exclusivity bill goes ahead Leonard Neill THOUSANDS OF courier industry employees face retrenchment when the amendments to the Postal Services Act become law within the next three months. The amendments give the South African Post Office exclusivity over all postal items weighing up to 1kg. The South African Express Association lost its long-fought battle last week, when Parliament passed the amendments to the Act. “It now goes to the final ratification stage and then the State President’s signature before becoming law,” says Kgaogelo Legoro, chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio on Communications. “This may come about before Parliament rises at the end of this month. Otherwise it will definitely come into place during the final session of the year in November.” Interlink Postal Courier had challenged the post office’s monopoly and argued that a licensed courier service should not be restricted to face-to-face deliveries, but should be allowed to use the postal service, especially to rural areas, which often allowed for small profit margins. The Court ruled in favour of the postal authorities recently, giving the post office the sole right to deliver all letters and small parcels, subject to mass and size limits. “The rationale behind this is that the post office cannot run a service that brings losses to them,” says Legoro. “They are now forced to impose what is a universal service obligation. They have to strive to deliver to all parts of the country in fast time.” Speaking from her Pretoria base, postal regulator Miki Kutta , said she was satisfied the post office could deliver on time and as required. “If it doesn’t, then the courier companies can take it to task,” she says. “It’s the business of couriering parcels of this size that I must lose,” says Wilbert Zwane, one of thousands of small delivery operators whose businesses face an uncertain future following the passing of amendments to the Postal Services Act giving the Post Office exclusivity over parcels weighing less than 1 kilogram. See story on page 4.
