LETTER: Post Office wouldn’t innovate, now it’s dying

Khaya Sithole is right about the demise of the Post Office (“The demise of the Post Office is no great surprise”, April 20). Even without the complete and utter mismanagement and corruption, the Post Office occupies a confused, dying industry where its purpose is becoming increasingly vague.  

Alongside the SABC, which clings to relevance while its role is overtaken by superior streaming services and the internet, the Post Office is assaulted on all sides by damaging political interference, terrible managers, PR disasters and unsolvable debt. All the while we ask what it is even good for these days.

Sithole makes good suggestions for how the Post Office could have transitioned into relevance in this day of the internet, instant messaging and emails. It could have used its existing infrastructure to transition into many different industries and new purposes. But it didn’t.

No surprise there. Why would a public sector institution, guaranteed to receive money from the state whether or not it makes the effort to innovate? The private sector innovates. It invents to stay relevant because if it doesn’t it dies quickly. The Post Office overstayed its welcome because it relied on state funding while it continued to underperform for ages.

The best thing that can be done now is to identify what slim purposes the Post Office has still been fulfilling, and then enable the private sector to fulfil those as much as possible. Where that purpose is unprofitable but still required provide subsidies. But only to tried and tested private sector institutions that will do their job and innovate.

Nicholas Woode-Smith
Cape Town

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