South Africa

Time Traveler | Cool Facts! | Technology | Post Explorer

Time Traveler
  South Africa's postal history started off with a letter in the milk wood tree on Mossel Bay. The letter was left by Portuguese explorers who stopped over at Mossel Bay for freshwater en route to India. Hence the milk wood tree is now declared a national landmark in South Africa.

Dutch explorer Jan van Riebeeck arrived at the Cape of Good Hope. Under the postal stones, he received news of a bitter war between Netherlands and England. To prevent confidential mail from reaching the English, letters were encased in lead so they could be dumped overboard.

After Jan's arrival, the use of ships to transport mail was continued. Instead of relying on commercial liners to help load mail, exclusive mail ships were inaugurated by the British towards 1850. They were equipped with sorting facilities which allowed sorting onboard the ship. These steamships broke record times by their incredible speeds.

The romantic era of postal history had to include the great discovery of diamonds at Kimberly, one of the richest mineral mines in South Africa today. Mail coaches were often used to transport loads of diamonds out of Kimberly, and they often met the typical bandits en route. Finally, a safer and faster means of transport was introduced to transport these diamonds: the railway.

On December 28, 1791, the first post office was opened at the Castle at the Cape for handling sea mail only. A scheduled postal route between the Netherlands and its colonies in Asia and Africa was set up. By 1898, postmen began receiving njwele (bicycles) to deliver mail. They could also use trams for free but had to verify they were using it for official purposes by carrying the mail pouch.

Cool Facts!
  Back then from 1505 to 1652, without postboxes, postal stones were used by sailors. These large stones were situated well beyond the high tide mark and the sailors left their mail under them. The letters were waterproofed with a lead covering.

It seemed that the South African postal system has its fair share of problems, especially with postal security. With South Africa having one of the world's highest crime rates, it is heartening to see that the postal authorities are taking a tough stance against dishonest postal employees. The problem of postal security seems bad with over 200 employees being retrenched in 1999 alone for committing postal thefts.

Although South Africa has been barred officially from the Universal Postal Union since 1969 because of international condemnation of its apartheid policy, the post office still continues to pay its requisite membership fees to the union.

Technology
  The South African post office believes that mail delivered by road can reach its destination as fast as airmail. To prevent damage to mail or probable misplacement, mail is no longer placed in mailbags but in secure letter trays and cylindrical containers.

The South African postal system features a Track and Trace center which allows customers to locate each piece of mail at any point during the delivery just to give them assurance.

The South African postal system is stepping up its efficiency to make up for unanticipated delays in flight arrivals. With cargo aircraft usually meeting incumbent delays at Johannesburg International Airport, it is literally impossible for mail to be sorted within the same day and the installation of more equipment seems to be the solution. In general, it seems that the postal system is improving over the years with less lost mail and more on-time deliveries even through the Millennium period.

Post Explorer
  The South African Post Office has introduced a new service goal similar to that of the Japanese: "The Customer is King". This goal includes objectives such as reducing postal theft and improving the efficiency of postal deliveries.

Besides the usual products and services offered by most major post-offices, the South African postal system also had attractive packages for advertisers and magazine publishers. Advertisements and magazines could be sent in bulk at a much lower rate than other classes of mail. It seemed like a good co-operation because advertisers could target the wide contacts of the post office as potential customers.