The South African Post Office (SA Post Office) is the national postal service in South Africa. As a state-owned enterprise, its sole shareholder is the South African government. Under South African law, the Post Office is the only entity allowed by law to accept pre-ordered mail, and as such, it has a monopoly position. With over 16,480 employees, it operates over 1,400, postal outlets across the country, and therefore has a presence in almost every town and town in South Africa. Nomkhita Mona joined SA Post Office in April 2021 as Group CEO. Its main subsidiary is Postbank, a financial services provider.

History

The Post Office Tree in Mossel Bay

The history of the Southern African Postal Service dates back more than 500 years. In 1500, the Portuguese captain Petro D'Ataide placed a letter on a milkwood tree in Mossel Bay. He reported that three ships in his fleet, including those of Bartolomeu Dias, had sunk during a storm in the Atlantic Ocean. Portuguese ships often stopped in Mossel Bay to absorb fresh water, and three months later the letter was found and sent to Portugal. Sailors, as they traveled to and from the East via the south coast of Africa, placed letters under a post stone in the hope that they would be found and delivered by other ships.

On 2 March 1792, Johan Isaac Rhenius, acting governor of Cape Town, opened a post office in a room next to the food pantry at Cape Town's Castle of Good Hope. This was the beginning of what would later become the South African Post Office (SAPO). By 1805, there was a regular inland mail service between Argoa Bay and Falls Bay in Cape Town, using farmers on horseback. A post van ran weekly back and forth between Cape Town and the towns of Stellenbosch. In 1806, Sir David Baird ruled that the enslaved indigenous people of Cape Town, the Khoi, would be used to carry letters and small parcels. In 1815, a mail ship service was introduced between England and Cape Town, and in 1848, the then Transvaal government appointed mail carriers to carry official mail. Prior to this, mail was sent by special courier or by any available means of transport. The first postage stamp issued in South Africa was the Cape Triangle, introduced in 1853. The stamps were available in two denominations - four penny blue and one penny red. In 1860, the first post box was erected in Cape Town, and several railway lines were completed and used to transport mail. The first mail train was introduced in 1883.

In 1867, diamonds were discovered in South Africa, and in 1905, the Cullinan, the world's largest diamond, was sent to London as a postal item of ordinary record. First transported mail by car in 1911, SAPO experimented with using camels to deliver mail, and replaced them with an oxcart service in 1914. In December 1911, the first air mail delivery flew from Kenilworth in Cape Town to Mason Berg in a flight time of seven and a half minutes. The mail was transported in the same manner as the model of aircraft used by Louis Bleriot when he crossed the English Channel two years earlier.

By 1919, there was a regular car service, and a regular air mail service was introduced the same year. The first overseas air mail service was introduced in 1932, and the Springbok air service was introduced between the Commonwealth of South Africa and the United Kingdom in 1945. The Republic of South Africa issued its first set of definitive stamps on 31 May 1961, when South Africa withdrew from the Commonwealth due to the then apartheid policy.

In 1973, postal codes were introduced to facilitate automated mail sorting, and standardized letters were introduced later that year. In 1994, after the end of minority rule, South Africa rejoined the Universal Postal Union. SAPO currently operates under a 25-year license granted by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), and as such must provide universal services to all citizens of the country.

Current activities

The South African Post Office Group currently consists of a number of divisions and subsidiaries that operate in the areas of mail, financial services, logistics, real estate, e-commerce and retail services. The traditional collection, sorting and delivery of letters and parcels constitute the Group's main business activities, accounting for nearly 65% of the Group's annual revenue in 2010/12. Nearly 1.50 billion mailings were processed in the 2010/11 financial year. To process and distribute this volume of mail, the group operates 6 large mail centres and more than 40 warehouses across the Republic. However, over the past 3 years, the group has seen a decline in its traditional mail volume. This decline is in line with a similar decline experienced by most postal operators around the world, as traditional mail as a medium of communication has been replaced by electronic alternatives such as email and, more recently, mobile phones.

In 2021, both local and international parcel deliveries are unreliable and delays of more than six months are common. Overseas Christmas cards usually arrive at their destinations in March. To regain lost market share in postal deliveries, the Post Office is proposing to pass legislation requiring all parcels weighing 1kg or less to be delivered by it. If passed, this would give the Post Office a government-imposed monopoly on the delivery of small parcels.

The South African Post Office has been plagued by theft of goods and parcels by its employees. This has resulted in the termination and prosecution of the employment relationship of postal workers.

Postal Bank

The group's second largest activity is financial services, which it provides through its Savings Bank, which operates under the name Postbank. Postal Bank itself was established in 1910 and is the largest savings bank in the country. Over 6 million customers have accounts with Postbank, making it one of the largest banks in South Africa, measured by the number of customers. Postal Bank is only a deposit-taking institution and therefore does not offer credit products, only savings and investment products.

Over the years, the South African Post Office has been suffering increasing financial losses due to mismanagement, corruption and competition from the private sector. On 12 April 2023, it was provisionally liquidated, putting the jobs of 16,400 + employees at risk and causing problems for customers, especially in rural areas.

On 27 September 2023, Postbank was officially spun off from the Post Office and became The Postbank SOC Limited