The government asked Mark Barnes to fix the South African Post Office and make it profitable but is not honouring its commitments to give it business, he says. The parastatal posted a R1.1-billion loss in the 2015-16 financial year ended March. It will lose more than that in the current financial year if the government doesn't step up to the plate like it said it would, says the former investment banker and founder of investing and trading solutions company Purple Group, who began his rescue mission at the post office in January. When he started, he was told that there was a cabinet resolution that 30% of government business would be awarded to the post office. Although R600-million has been budgeted, none of the promised government business has materialised, Barnes told parliament this week. Having told him to prepare the post office to compete with the private sector, the government now refuses to believe him when he says it is ready to do just that. "There's a trust deficit," say...
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