How did it all go wrong?
Former South African Post Office CEO Mark Barnes tells Peter Bruce of his stewardship of the Post Office.
He tried to take on local courier companies and had been talking to the Chinese, hoping that with mogul Jack Ma’s Alibaba they could create a South African version of Amazon.
But then, out of the blue, the Government announced it was going to spin the Post Bank out of the Post Office. Barnes had no warning.
President Cyril Ramaphosa ignored his letters so he tracked him down to his office in Cape Town.
The Cabinet had decided, Ramaphosa told him, and that was that. He resigned a day later.
An offer later to buy the Post Office for R5bn (its net asset value when he left) with the staff owning 10% and the government 40% was completely ignored and the Post Office, stripped of its bank, has continued to decline.
And the Post Bank still doesn’t have a banking license.
