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The DA welcomes the decision that SA Post Office (SAPO) employees will have their medical aid reinstated. All staff had their medical aids suspended by Medipos after the SAPO failed to make payments amounting to a staggering R700m.

The South African Post Office has been deducting medical aid contributions from their employee's salaries and simply ran away with the money, amounting to a staggering R700m unpaid bill. This is fraud on the most enormous scale.

Every Parliamentary option available to an MP has been utilised: Member's Statements, Questions to the Minister, media statements - and additionally after a meeting with the Hawks, a nationwide investigation has been launched.

After intense pressure from the DA, the bank account of the SAPO has been seized and R60m attached. Medipos has assured PO workers their medical aid benefits will be reinstated.

This after nearly 11 000 members and retirees - plus their family members - were ordered to repay the hundreds of thousands owing to the Medical aid, because the PO management had taken their contributions off their salaries and pensions, and not paid the money over.

The DA welcomes this decision as it has for the last month been reporting on this injustice and large-scale fraud that has been taking place at the South African Post Office.

The DA won't fold its arms and call it a day. We are aware that there are other sums of money that haven't been paid over such as VAT, UIF and Paye. We will continue our drive to get justice for the Post office employees.

Until someone has been arrested for this fraudulent outrage, we will continue to monitor the situation and drive the criminal investigation into the South African Post Office.

Issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP - DA Shadow Minister of Communications