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SAPO RESERVED POSTAL SERVICES: ICASA & DEPARTMENT SEND MIXED MESSAGES?
- 25 March 2026
- Communications & Digital Technologies
- SA Legal Academy
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has gazetted a notice calling for input by 23 April 2026 on the renewal of the South African Post Office’s (SAPO’s) 25-year reserved postal services licence. It is not clear if this marks the next step in a public participation process begun in February 2024 with a review of the 25-year licence period – on which SA Legal Academy reported at the time.
As SA Legal Academy also reported, in March 2025 input was sought for a supplementary review focusing on SAPO’s ‘exclusive’ right to provide the services concerned. At the time, these were:
- the delivery of all postal articles under 1kg in weight
- issuing postage stamps
- providing roadside collection and address boxes, and
- providing retail outlets at which these services may be accessed.
Nine months later, Communications & Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi gazetted a directive:
- allowing the SAPO to continue providing reserved postal services for one more year only, and
- excluding small parcels.
The ICASA notice calling for input makes no mention of this process or the ministerial directive – simply referring to the expiry of the SAPO’s 25-year licence on 31 March 2025, by which time a renewal application had already been lodged.
The 2006 ICASA Amendment Act transferred the functions of the postal regulator to the ICASA . The SAPO’s 2001 reserved postal service licence was then aligned to the provisions of the ICASA Act. In that context, an official statement is needed on the relationship (if any) between two public participation processes about the same issue.
- Government Gazette notice
- February 2024 SA Legal Academy report
- March 2025 SA Legal Academy report
- December 2025 SA Legal Academy report
Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch
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