THE BOTTOM LINE

Oh dear, I seem to be behind again - here is the post that shouldhave gone up on Thursday.

My, my - seems like everyone has been dipping into the coffers, yet again and as usual things have come back to bite them in the bum!

What with Khutso uncovering all manner and means of "smelly" things, it will be hugely interesting to see just how they manage to get themselves out of this current bout of hot water!

The Bottom Line

Posted to the web on: 06 November 2006

Rob Rose’s Monday Column: Post Office pushes parody envelope with another bid to stifle information

AS AN institution meant to be beavering away to facilitate the free flow of information, the South African Post Office seems to have become a tasteless parody of itself.

What with Maanda Manyatshe (the MD of cellphone company MTN and the former Post Office CEO) locked in a bruising battle with his successor at the Post Of fice, Khutso Mampeule, it says something about the quality of leadership that both tried to gag the press in the past few months.

The war between the two could have further frightening consequences for the Post Office: Manyatshe will meet his lawyers tomorrow to draw up papers for a staggering R100m claim against Mampeule and the Post Office.

Not only would this be one of the largest personal claims yet, it would add to the Post Office’s expanding list of liabilities. (It seems the only way the Post Office could possibly get into any more trouble would be if it merged with the SABC.)

This whole unseemly tussle started over a R100m contract awarded to a company called Vision Design House (VDH) during Manyatshe’s tenure.

After Manyatshe left the Post Office, Mampeule cancelled the deal and laid a criminal complaint against Manyatshe for pushing through the tender with out proper procedure. The allegation, it seems, is that in exchange for the tender, Vision Design VDH would do work on Manyatshe’s house.)

When the Mail & Guardian tried to report on the criminal complaint, Manyatshe tried to gag it - ultimately unsuccessfully. Now it has come full circle: Mampeule went to court on Friday night to get a gagging order to prevent Business Report outlining problems with Mampeule’s plan to extend the Post Office’s financial services through insurance joint venture, Post Sure.

One only has to be reminded of the quality of the institutions that have taken this tack in recent months - Sandi Majali’s Imvume and the SABC Broadcasting Corporation certainly spring to mind - to know that a gag order only fuels suspicion, rather than douses it. Although you can hardly blame the Post Office for being sensitive about its liabilities - especially as its money comes largely from the taxpayer.

The Post Office’s annual report puts its contingent liabil ities at R679m, which includes a R28m tax claim, R41m from "service providers", and a R510m claim by the "unsuccessful tenderers" for the Biometric payment system. These liabilities outweigh its total R486m profit last year, a figure which was in any event boosted by a hefty R389m which came from a surplus in the Post Office’s pension fund.

Last week, Mampeule and his financial officer, Nick Buick, were grilled in Parliament’s

communications portfolio committee on these potential debts. Buick defended the Post Office, saying it had "certainly applied its minds" and disclosed all necessary contingent liabilities.

KM Khumalo, one of the African National Congress’s committee members, noted how the Manyatshe scrap had damaged the Post Office’s brand, saying the consequences could be “too ghastly to contemplate”.

Importantly, Khumalo said if Mampeule’s board failed to deal with its problems, or misled Parliament, the committee would have to call for a “vote of no confidence in management”.
Although the focus was initially on Manyatshe — and certainly the police investigation will be watched closely — all eyes are now on Mampeule, especially after his ill-advised gag attempt.