Godongwana: There's no money in adjustment budget to bail out SA Post Office

CAPE TOWN - Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said that Treasury had no money to bailout the South African Post Office (SAPO) and it must look elsewhere.

Godongwana also said that they had decided to remain tight-fisted and would not be bailing out any state-owned enterprises in the medium term even though some were in "distress". 

Godongwana was addressing the media on Wednesday shortly before tabling his medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) in Parliament.

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Minister Godongwana said the Government of National Unity (GNU) would continue on the path of the previous administration of giving SOEs what he called "tough love" and no easy bailouts.

According to National Treasury documents tabled with the budget, government’s medium-term fiscal strategy includes "limiting further financial support to SOEs".

Godongwana said that the post office was no exception, even as it approaches "day zero" in October when its funds run dry.

"By the way, they told us D-day for the post office is today. [But] there’s no money in the adjustment as we speak. We are hoping that the department of communications and digital technologies will find ways of reorganising and reprioritising their budget to deal with that question."

He said government was committed to the principle of not bailing out SOEs, saying government had spent well over R500 billion bailing out entities since 2009.