Retrenched South African Post Office workers are elated that they will finally meet with Deputy Minister in the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies Mondli Gungubele regarding their plight.
The retrenched workers have been at loggerheads with the Post Office, the Business Rescue Practitioners as well as the government for many years now regarding their outstanding pension funds.
On Friday they staged a picket at the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies offices to highlight their plight.
Director General in the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies Nonkqubela Jordan-Dyani came out to engage them and promised that she has arranged a meeting whereby the retrenched workers will meet with the department’s Deputy Minister Mondli Gungubele.
Nonkqubela Jordan-Dyani said “we need to hold everyone responsible regarding why we got to this situation and we urge the Business Rescue Practitioners to establish proper communication channels with the Post Office, employees as well as retrenched Post Office workers so that information becomes clear to all stakeholders in this matter.”
She said the Business Rescue Practitioners must also give a proper account of what it is that they have achieved thus far and what it is that is still outstanding in their work.
“Up until now we have not been able to receive the much-awaited funding from the government and my message to the retrenched workers is that as the government we understand their predicament and we are therefore trying our level best to settle this matter as soon as possible,” she said.
She admitted that there is a dispute regarding the amount of money that is due to the retrenched workers and that her department was engaging with the Post Office, the government and the Business Rescue Practitioners to find out proper information in this regard.
Benjamin Mukhari from Hammanskraal told Tshwane Talks that many former Post Office workers are happy that they will finally meet Deputy Minister Gungubele.
“We hope that this time around the meeting won’t be postponed at the eleventh hour in the middle of the night as has been the case many times before, and the Director General has put in in black and white that the meeting will definitely go ahead as scheduled,” he said.
Mukhari left the Post Office many years ago after taking a severance package.
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