• Dates of postal visits:
• Johannesburg International Airport – 9 April 2026
• Johannesburg Marshalltown – 10 April 2026
• Umhlanga – 25 April 2026
• KwaNojoli (Somerset East) – 30 April 2026
• Post Office Tree, Mossel Bay – 1 May 2026
• Vlaeberg Post Office, Cape Town – 2 May 2026
• Cost of sending postcard: international airmail 14,25 ZAR (aprox.0,75 eur)
• Postcards available at: gift shops, museums
• Delivery time: quickest from Umhlanga to Canada 32 days

South Africa was the only country on this Southern Africa and Saint Helena trip where we had not planned to send many postcards. That was partly due to time, partly because Andry had visited the country a few years earlier, and partly because many post offices no longer exist. The South African Post Office entered business rescue in 2023, and numerous post offices still marked on Google Maps have since closed their doors.

What I did not expect was that we would end up emptying a post box.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

After leaving Lesotho, we spent a night in the small town of KwaNojoli (Somerset East). We arrived at the Angler and Antelope Guesthouse after dark, and our conversation with the owners Alan and Annabelle Hobson, took place over breakfast the following morning in a converted church. The walls and display boards were covered with photographs of local wildlife, nature and fishing trips.

I asked whether they happened to have any postcards.

Annabelle told us they had once sold postcards themselves, but nobody had asked for one in years.

Alan disappeared into a back room and returned with a small stack.

“Take as many as you like.”

As for the local post office, Annabelle said she had not visited it for at least three years and seriously doubted whether it was still functioning.

Why would she? These days, almost everything arrives directly at your door.

The post office was still open, though. Despite all the stories about the collapse of the postal service, the Somerset East post office seemed perfectly healthy. Busy counters, plenty of staff and a steady stream of customers. Not because of postcards. It was the beginning of the month and people had come to collect their social payments.

Then again, Alan and Annabelle had little reason to visit. Unless they were planning to send postcards with proper stamps and postmarks.

With a number of postcards stamped and mailed, we assumed our postal adventures in South Africa were largely over for the day. The rest of the day was supposed to have nothing to do with postcards. Our plan was to reach the coast, and to make the drive a little more interesting, we decided to cross Addo Elephant National Park. A weather delay on our Saint Helena trip had already cost us a planned visit to Kruger National Park, so Addo was not part of the original itinerary.

Entering through the southern gate, we stopped at the reception building. The ticket office was at one end of the building, while the restaurant and souvenir shop were at the other.

Once we had bought our tickets and studied the suggested route through the park, we headed for the souvenir shop. After Esvatini and Lesotho, it felt enormous. There were shelves full of gifts, books and an impressive selection of postcards with animals, at about €0.30 each.

The woman behind the counter noticed our interest.

“We also sell stamps,” she said casually. “In case you want to send anything.”

“Do you have a date stamp as well?”

She shook her head.

That immediately raised another question.

“Where is the post box?”

“Outside, right in front of the ticket office.”

We were not planning to mail anything there. We had no way of getting the cards cancelled and assumed that would be the end of it.

Still, curiosity got the better of us. We walked over to have a look.

The box was beautiful. Red. Freestanding.

Exactly what made me test the door remains unclear. I slipped my fingers behind its edge and pulled.

The door swung open.

The box contained a large stack of postcards.

That did not seem right.

Back at reception, we asked the young woman who had sold us our tickets when the mail would be collected from the box.

“Never.”

We stared at her.

“The South African Post Office doesn’t function anymore,” she explained.

That was interesting, because we had posted postcards only a few hours earlier.

Andry showed her photographs of the freshly cancelled cards from Somerset East.

She examined the postmark.

“Well,” she said eventually, “that does look real.”

After a pause she added: “That is probably the only working post office left in the whole country.”

We decided not to argue.

Instead, we asked whether we could take the cards from the abandoned post box and deliver them ourselves to a functioning post office.

“Are you driving back that way?” she asked.

Before we could answer, she shrugged. “Sure. Take them.”

We did not need to be asked twice. And so, for the first and probably only time in our lives, we emptied a post box.

Our unexpected postal cargo safely loaded into the car, we continued through Addo Elephant National Park towards the coast. Along the way we saw elephants, warthogs and plenty of other wildlife. There was even a lion resting beside the road.

Before returning to the postcards we had unexpectedly inherited, a brief detour into South African postal history.

South Africa has one of Africa’s oldest postal systems. The country’s famous triangular Cape of Good Hope stamps first appeared in 1853 and are still well known among collectors. For many decades the postal network was extensive and reliable. More recently, however, years of mismanagement, combined with declining mail volumes and mounting financial difficulties, have led to the closure of hundreds of post offices across the country. Despite all its difficulties, the South African Post Office continues to issue new stamps. The latest issue, released in January 2026, features critically endangered African vultures. Since 2023, only four commemorative stamp issues have appeared, which is rather modest for a country with one of Africa’s oldest postal traditions.

The following morning we visited a place that, while planning the trip, I had assumed would be the star of my South African postal story.

The Post Office Tree in Mossel Bay is over 500 years old.

In 1501, Portuguese navigator Pêro de Ataíde lost much of his fleet in a storm and left a message hidden inside a boot hanging from the tree. The message was intended for the next passing expedition and reached its recipient, João da Nova, the following year. Other sailors followed the practice, leaving messages in boots, iron pots and beneath rocks. Long before formal postal services existed, the tree had become an unofficial post office. Today, a boot-shaped post box stands beside the tree, and mail posted there receives a special stamp.

Mindful of our experience in Addo, we asked the museum staff whether the box was actually emptied. They assured us that it was.

Not every week, perhaps.

But regularly.

The two employees looked at each other while trying to determine exactly how regularly.

“Every two weeks, maybe.”

Andry was sceptical and chose not to post anything there.

I posted a couple of cards anyway, including a Postcrossing card to Dymphie in the Netherlands. Fingers crossed.

Because it was a public holiday, the local post office was closed. The rescued cards remained on the back seat of our car and would have to wait until Cape Town.

There we finally found another functioning post office, Vlaeberg Post Office in central Cape Town.

The clerk seemed completely unfazed by all the closed branches.

“There were simply too many post offices,” he explained.

He also assured us that the postal service was still functioning. After checking a few of the rescued cards and confirming that the postage looked correct, he handed us the date stamp. Andry immediately got to work.

As for the rescued cards, there were 181 of them. Two were missing stamps. We replaced those ourselves. Most carried no date at all. A few did. The oldest dated card had been posted on 13 February 2026. The cards were addressed to destinations all over the world: Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, China, Serbia and Italy, among others. Many had clearly been written by children and decorated with drawings. It was rather sad to think that they might never have reached their recipients.

After date-stamping every single card, Andry handed the entire pile back across the counter.

The postal clerk looked slightly surprised by the quantity but commented only that they would be sent onwards the following day.

That was the end of our post office visits on this trip. We spent one more day in Cape Town before our journey through Southern Africa came to an end and our flight carried us back to Europe.

By the time this post is published, some of the postcards have already reached their destinations. The first arrival was not a card posted at Johannesburg Airport, as I had expected, but one sent from Umhlanga on 25 April. It reached Canada on 27.05 (32 days).

A postcard posted at Johannesburg Airport on 10 April reached Germany on 30.05 (50 days).

As for the postcards mailed from Cape Town on 2 May together with the 181 postcards rescued from Addo Elephant National Park, no arrival reports have reached me yet.

Adding a small strip with my blog address to each rescued postcard. If you received one, I would love to hear from you.

Until we meet again at the next post office.

Update, 12 June 2026: The rescued postcards are beginning to reach their recipients. The very first person to get in touch through this blog was Oksana (@postcrossloverua) from Germany. Her postcard arrived after 41 days. To my surprise, she turned out to be a Postcrosser, too. The card had been sent by her boss, who had visited South Africa with his family before Easter..

Update, 16 June 2026: Dymphie has reported the arrival of the postcard posted in the boot-shaped post box beside the Post Office Tree in Mossel Bay. You can see the card here: https://www.postcrossing.com/postcards/ZA-164333. The rescued postcards have also started reaching their destinations. So far, the reports have come from Europe, but at least we now know that the cards are moving through the postal system and are on their way.

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