WHILE most people look forward to retirement, parcel delivery driver Sipho Khumalo has been travelling the Highway streets for the past 60 years and he still enjoys every moment of it.

Khumalo, who celebrated his 80th birthday on Thursday, February 26, said his first job as a delivery man was at the Westville Post Office.

“I worked there for 21 years, riding a bicycle delivering telegrams and express letters. Years later, I used a scooter,” said the soft-spoken Khumalo. Before that, he worked as a packer at a grocery shop.

Recalling his early days on the job, he said the roads were much quieter back then, with far fewer cars.

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“There were not so many accidents,” he said.

After leaving the post office, the father of five secured a job at a bank in Pinetown, starting as a courier and later being promoted to supervisor.

Following retrenchment, he found employment at his current workplace, a pharmacy in the Upper Highway, where he has been delivering medicines for more than 20 years.

Khumalo describes his job as peaceful, a place where he can be happy and not overthink.

However, his life has not been without tragedy.

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In 2004, Khumalo’s life was shattered when he lost his wife, a school principal in Dassenhoek, who was shot and killed.

“That was a very painful stage in my life,” he said quietly.

A few years later, he suffered another devastating loss when his only daughter died of stomach cancer.

“She had already opened her practice and was supposed to graduate as a doctor in July. She passed away in April,” he said.
Despite the pain he has endured, Khumalo continues to smile, engage warmly with people, and carry out his duties with pride and diligence.

“I have enjoyed my work and have fond memories. I have made many friends, and I am grateful for all the relationships I have built over the years.”

When asked how long he plans to continue working, he smiled and said, “For as long as I am healthy.”

His employer, Anthea Goldswain, said Khumalo has been delivering medicines for their pharmacy for more than 20 years.

“For most of this time he rode a scooter, but only recently we changed over to a car.”

Because Khumalo has worked in the Highway area his entire adult life, Goldswain said, “there is seldom a road he is not familiar with. He uses neither a map book nor a GPS.

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“I am so proud of him for being so dedicated to our business and to his job, and to still be working long after the majority of people think that they are too old to work.

“Sipho is an inspiration to us,” said the grateful employer.

While Sipho’s job is hard work, in all weather, and dealing with traffic and addresses with no numbers or doorbells, Goldswain said she still feels that it has enriched Khumalo’s life in so many ways that he wouldn’t have experienced had he retired to a quiet life at home 20 years ago.

“Working together for so long, we have become ‘family’. We are as proud of Sipho’s achievement as though he was our own father.”

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