Heathway Shopping Centre post box users still in limbo

In May 2022, the South African Post Office (Sapo) had its Heathway Shopping Centre post boxes permanently closed, much to the frustration of its customers.

This was after Sapo fell into rental arrears with the centre.

Resident David Hopcroft had a post box for many years at Heathway and was appalled at how the situation had been handled. At Cresta, he said his wife went twice to try and collect their post.

“There is no system of storing mail, alphabetical or otherwise,” he claimed. “There was a lady simply rummaging through a mountain of envelopes, randomly looking for mail addressed to us, resulting in us eventually being handed eight envelopes when we usually collect about six a week.”

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He said he was frustrated that the post office had not communicated with its post box tenants properly considering they paid for the service a year at a time but have not had the benefit of the boxes since May.

Centre manager Hanlie Morgan said it was a pity that the post boxes were no longer available for shoppers and residents. “They [post boxes] have been with us for years and people could always go to our lower basement by the parking and get their mail.”

She said despite various interactions with Sapo, as landlords they had to take action when the unpaid rent almost reached close to R1 million. “The post office has been in arrears with Heathway Centre since 2019.

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Despite reaching out to them throughout the years, no payment was received and no payment arrangement was proposed. Their lease expired in April 2020 and was not renewed.”

She added the High Court of South Africa had executed a writ of eviction, whereby the SA Post Office and its employees have been instructed to leave the premises and its permanent fixtures (post boxes), which entitles the landlord to enter and possess the said premises.

“It is unlikely the centre would consider them as tenants again,” said Morgan and that it was ‘unfortunate because it offered a useful service for those that used the boxes for personal or business reasons’.

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Johan Kruger, communications manager at Sapo said, “The post office is in arrears with the rent but we do not disclose details like amounts as a matter of policy, but that [rent owing] is far below R1 million.”

Kruger disputed the claim that the mail from the Heathway post boxes was kept haphazardly at Cresta. He said there were 305 post boxes at Heathway and the mail of those box holders were kept in ‘box number sequence’ at Cresta Post Office so that customers could collect it without fuss.

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“To reopen the boxes somewhere else, Sapo will need the locks [of the boxes] that are currently at Heathway, who refuses us access to remove the locks, and relocate the boxes to another location.”

When asked if customers such as Hopcroft would be refunded for the months the service had been unavailable to them he said, “The rental for a year is R670 but at this time the post office is not in a position to refund the pro rata rental.”

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