Johannesburg - Post Office CEO Mark Barnes on Thursday joined other employees in cleaning and fixing up two post office branches in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg.
Barnes, who has been in the position since the end of last year, has been tasked with turning the unprofitable entity around.
He faces tough challenges, including a lack of consumer trust in the entity, cash crunches and seemingly endless strike threats over wages.
Barnes is a respected business man and was recently chairman of Purple Capital. Barnes. He has more than 25 years of experience in positions of leadership in the financial services market in South Africa.
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In a statement issued on Thursday, the post office pointed out Barnes was getting his hands dirty and not just sitting in an ivory tower.
Barnes spent time with employees behind the counter and on delivery rounds, using the opportunity to gain insights into the day-to-day issues that employees face at grassroots level. He also had the opportunity to interact with customers on site.
His visit happened at the time when the SA Post Office is near to finalising a capital injection from the major banks so it can fully implement its turnaround plans.
The CEO last month told Parliament the post office could only hope to be profitable in two years’ time.
SAPO would require around R3.5 billion in funding to help the post office emerge from its current financial dire straits.
About R1 billion of this money would be needed to settle overdue accounts with creditors, some who have not been paid for a year.
Barnes noted that other post office staff had found innovative ways of keeping the offices working during tough times.
“In my few encounters with my colleagues at various levels, I have learnt of the amazing levels of their commitment to the future of the SA Post Office. In keeping operations afloat, during bad times, they have done some innovatively scheduled cleaning rosters in addition to their daily responsibilities and even recycling used paper to print customers’ invoices,” expanded Barnes.
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Barnes is endeavouring to turn the post office into a 21st century entity, a journey that started with the recent unveiling of market-based eRegistered Mail, launched last week.
This system has an in-built end-to-end audit trail of the parcels to cater for speed, reliability, security and convenience.
Anyone who needs to send Registered Mail can use this system as long as they have access to the web and have the email address of the intended recipient.
This service adds to the hybrid mail and electronic bill presentment and payment services already provided by the Post Office. “Today’s visit enabled an opportunity to socialise with our colleagues at local level in an attempt to get in touch with their daily operations, while at the same time appreciating the difficult challenges they have to contend with in their pursuit for the dream of the SA Post Office,” Barnes explained.
The Post Office says similar initiatives are planned nationally in line with a drive of the company’s new corporate values.
IOL