Johannesburg - The South African Post Office has a new CEO, less than a month after an acting head was appointed to lead up the embattled utility.
Cabinet on Thursday approved the appointment of Mark Barnes as CEO. Barnes will take up his five-year position on January 15.
He is a respected business man and currently chairman of Purple Capital. Barnes has more than 25 years of experience in positions of leadership in the financial services market in South Africa.
The minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Dr Siyabonga Cwele, has welcomed his appointment and notes his appointment will “help us address one of the two main challenges faced by the SAPO, that of creating leadership stability”.
The post office has been enduring turbulent times with seemingly never-ending strikes, a cash flow situation that has seen it withhold part of its staff’s salaries and an anticipated loss of R1.3 billion loss for the financial year to March.
The utility has also requested a R480 million bailout from the National Treasury to pay its creditors in the current financial year.
Cwele says stable leadership will enable the post office to implement the strategic turnaround Plan, which was approved by Cabinet in June this year.”I believe the board is capable and needs an equally capable management team to turn the post office around.”
The minister also notes, despite the advent of the digital age, the post office “remains a crucial institution because in some communities, it is the only financial services institution”.
Cwele added the department continues to talk with National Treasury around finding ways to invest in the post office as the turnaround plan requires funding.
At the end of October, the post office board and Cwele appointed Trevor Ndlazi as acting CEO for three months while it hunted for a permanent head.
IOL