{"id":879527,"date":"2026-10-13T09:43:42","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T07:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=879527"},"modified":"2026-10-13T09:43:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T07:43:45","slug":"dark-clouds-for-private-couriers-and-deliveries-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/879527\/dark-clouds-for-private-couriers-and-deliveries-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark clouds for private couriers and deliveries in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The South African Post Office (SAPO) has re-applied for its exclusive licence to provide services in South Africa, including the delivery of packages under 1kg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the group’s annual report for 2025\/26, published in September, the SAPO noted that its exclusive licence had expired in March 2025, and it reapplied for it in March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The application is still being processed, and the matter is pending. Because of this, the group flagged the licensing issue as a major risk to the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if the exclusive licence is granted, it does not remove the material changes to the licence terms implemented at the end of 2025 regarding small packages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Post Office has long held a contentious exclusivity licence to deliver small packages weighing under 1kg in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the state company’s failure to fulfil its mandate effectively and efficiently over more than a decade, private couriers and delivery companies have quickly filled the gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the growth of a multi-billion-rand industry that filled the void left by state failure, the Post Office sought to exercise its legal right to maintain exclusivity over these deliveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2025, however, the Department of Communication and Digital Technology effectively ended SAPO’s monopoly on small-parcel delivery in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DCDT Minister Solly Malatsi, under Section 15(3) of the Postal Services Act, amended Schedule 1 of the Act, removing the reference to \u201csmall parcels\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schedule 1 of the Act refers to reserved postal services that are exclusively the mandate of the Post Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally, these services included \u201call letters, postcards, printed matter, small parcels<\/strong> and other postal articles subject to the mass or size limitations set\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was changed to remove \u201csmall parcels\u201d from the services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the change has been gazetted, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) still has to ratify it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malatsi noted in July<\/strong><\/a> that this had not yet been done\u2014as such, the exclusivity still held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he also noted that public submissions regarding the Post Office’s monopoly over parcel deliveries were overwhelmingly opposed to this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost of the submissions received were against extending SAPO\u2019s exclusive right to provide reserved postal services,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Material risk<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The SAPO has flagged uncertainty regarding the future of its exclusivity for these deliveries as a material risk to the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because the group’s turnaround and business rescue outcomes depend on this service as a future revenue source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Regulatory uncertainty remained a major risk to SA Post Office turnaround prospects. SAPO had applied to renew its exclusive licence for reserved postal services, including sub-1kg parcels,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The licence application process had advanced to the public comment stage, but the final regulatory outcome and any attached conditions remained outstanding.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAPO\u2019s vision for its business, published around mid-2025, projected its courier and parcel services would grow from a paltry R38 million contributor in 2024 to a R1.4 billion behemoth by 2029.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SAPO said Malatsi’s directive to remove sub-1kg parcels from its exclusive services was a “material development” that would eliminate a revenue source incorporated into its business rescue plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this hinged on the group exclusively handling these services\u2014without it, it would be forced to compete with a deeply entrenched, effective, and efficient private sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked about the impact on the Post Office\u2019s business rescue plan in July, Malatsi said the removal of SAPO’s monopoly on delivering parcels under 1kg was not identified as a material driver of its sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This runs counter to the years-long messaging from the SAPO, as well as constant requests for ICASA to enforce the exclusivity and fine private companies for encroaching on its rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Post Office wants its exclusive rights to deliver small packages in South Africa restored.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":790138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2109913040032354624","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2235583590595373","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18621246007012256","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[3003,3004],"class_list":["post-879527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-post-office","tag-sapo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":879546,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879527\/revisions\/879546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}