Postal delivery reaches wrong address

The letters include correspondence from insurance companies, medical aid schemes, banks and even the South African Revenue Service.

March 20, 2019

Bruce Douglas 1 minute read

A simple postal error or pure laziness?

This is the question a Lennoxton resident asked, after she discovered around 20 letters, not addressed to her, in her postbox on a visit to the Scott Street branch of the South African Post Office (SAPO) at the end of February.

She handed the letters over to the Newcastle Advertiser.

“I went to the postbox and got a ton of other people’s mail. Only four or five letters in the pile were for me and the rest weren’t.”

The letters include correspondence from insurance companies, medical aid schemes, banks and even the South African Revenue Service.

Receiving these mail items on time could be critical for a resident. The only link between the resident and the letters stuffed into her postbox were the first two digits, which has made her doubtful this was an innocent error.

“It’s not even close to our postal address to say it’s an honest mistake. They didn’t read which box the letters were meant for, and just grabbed a stack and put them into the nearest postbox they could see.”

The information given by the resident was put into an email and forwarded to SAPO Communications Officer, Nobuhle Njpaha for response.

She has yet to respond to the email.

However, a query from the Newcastle Advertiser appears to have been forwarded to SAPO’s Manager: Mail Delivery, Reggie Naidoo, who contacted reporters directly.