Dear Sir

Is it just me, or are our postal services deteriorating rapidly? Letters I send often do not reach their destination; letters addressed to me frequently do not find their way into my mailbox. On 30 June, my neighbour brought me seven (7!) letters which the postman had just put into her letterbox, even though all seven were legibly addressed to me, at my house number, not my neighbour’s. One of these letters had been posted in Germany on February 14! The others had all been posted in March or April. I suppose I must be grateful these letters found their way to me, at all, but I cannot help wondering how many others were lost irretrievably. Heaven only knows to what address they were delivered, if at all. I frequently receive letters in my mailbox addressed to people with names and addresses not even remotely similar to my own. I always re-post such letters, but there might well be people who simply chuck away such mail. I can only appeal, from the bottom of my heart, to my fellow-citizens, to re-post all incorrectly delivered mail.

Surely we cannot be expected to register every single letter we send? At R 22,95 registration fee per item, the cost would be prohibitive. As it is, sending letters is not cheap. Since 1 April, an ordinary inland letter costs you R2,40 in postage, that is an increase of 6,6% from last year’s postage. (Inflation officially stood at 5,1% in March). At such prices, are we not entitled to a reliable service?

An afterthought: I wonder what the Soccer World Cup tourists will say when they get home to find that their Wish-you-were-here postcards from South Africa never reached their friends and family?

Sincerely

Gigi Gottwald