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Thread: Who is going to pay for this mess at the post office?

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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    Who is going to pay for this mess at the post office?

    At a guess - we are!
    The SA Post Office (Sapo) faces what could be a record claim for damages.

    The claim, which remains to be proved financially, is for R1.3 billion plus costs.

    This follows a judgment by acting Judge Stanley Sapire of the Pretoria high court that the Post Office could not appeal to the supreme court of appeal his finding that the parastatal had breached a contract with the cellular arm of the National Stokvels Association of SA (Nasasa).

    Sapire also rejected the Post Office's application for a condonation of its late filing of an application for leave to appeal.

    The Post Office had 15 court days to file its application, but came back only about six months later and wanted to introduce new evidence, according to Nasasa Cellular's attorney, Bernard Hotz, a director at Werksmans Attorneys. Interest on the claim is R17 million a month, or R204 million a year at 15.5 percent.

    The Post Office is funded mainly by the taxpayer. The government is giving it R372 million this year as a subsidy, to be increased to R383 million next year.

    The claim arose out of a deal signed in September 2004 by Maanda Manyatshe, the then-chief executive of the Post Office. He later left to join MTN as managing director, but resigned when his successor at the Post Office, Khutso Mampeule, alleged corruption against him. Manyatshe is now suing the parastatal for more than R200 million for damages to his name.

    Mampeule was fired by Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, the minister of communications, following a forensic audit into the Post Office.

    The agreement between the Post Office and Nasasa was that over an initial period of five years, Nasasa would sell cellular phones at Post Office premises throughout the country.

    "The agreement was never implemented because Sapo from the outset consistently failed to honour its obligations," said Sapire.

    On the application for condonation by the Post Office, Sapire said: "The events which caused the delay in making this application … disclose a lamentable absence of administrative coherence in the applicant and astonishing ineptitude at the highest level of its officers at the relevant time."

    The Post Office sought leave to appeal on the grounds that Manyatshe did not have authority to sign the agreement under the Public Finance Management Act and the Post Office Act.
    full story from Business Report here
    The incompetent bastards at the heart of this should be the ones coughing up!

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    Silver Member Graeme's Avatar
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    Will it all never end!

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