The residents of the Western Cape’s Cape Winelands District Municipality who participated in the public hearings on the South African Post Office Amendment Bill [B11-2023] overwhelmingly supported the Bill and called for the Post Office to be opened in rural communities urgently.

The Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies held its first public hearings on the Bill yesterday (9 September 2023) at the Simondium Community Hall in Paarl. The residents reiterated their call for the existence of Post Office branches in the remote communities and in informal settlements. This, according to them, is because people who stay there cannot afford taxi fares to travel to the nearest towns in order to access Post Office services, especially social grants.

The Bill seeks, amongst other things, to amend the South African Post Office SOC Ltd Act, 2011, so as to provide for the revised duties and expand on the mandate of the South African Post Office, as provided for in this Act and in the Postal Services Act, 1998; as well as to provide for the repurposing of the Post Office’s infrastructure so as to provide diversified and expanded services and exploit the infrastructure capacity to extract value and forge partnerships with other stakeholders.

The committee will conduct public hearings in line with its approved programme. These public hearings are conducted in line with section 59(1)(a) of the Constitution, which requires the National Assembly to facilitate public involvement in the legislative and other processes of the National Assembly and its committees.

Source: Parliament of South Africa