{"id":863957,"date":"2026-06-28T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=863957"},"modified":"2026-06-26T16:13:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T14:13:33","slug":"end-of-an-era-for-south-african-households","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/863957\/end-of-an-era-for-south-african-households\/","title":{"rendered":"End of an era for South African households"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The volume of mail handled by the South African Post Office has significantly decreased over the past two decades as electronic communication has become the norm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent data from the General Household Survey (GHS) shows a notable shift in households that no longer receive any physical mail.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2002, only 9.0% of households reported receiving no mail at all. By 2019, this percentage had risen steadily to 32.7%.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trend accelerated dramatically following the COVID-19 pandemic, with the proportion of households receiving no mail skyrocketing to 67.4% by 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, only 32.6% of South African households received physical mail by any method in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Direct home delivery of mail is relatively uncommon and varies significantly based on geographic location. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nationally, only 25.3% of households receive mail delivered directly to their homes. This percentage increases to 36.0% in metropolitan areas and 30.6% in urban areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, rural areas have very limited access, with only 3.5% of households receiving mail delivered directly to their homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the rarity of direct home delivery in rural areas, these households often rely on alternative methods for receiving mail, such as through schools, workplaces, or community leaders (6.0%), rather than using traditional post boxes or private mail bags (3.8%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the overall volume of physical mail handled by the South African Post Office has dramatically declined, with 67.4% of households receiving no mail at all by 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this decline has been offset by a significant shift toward electronic communication, particularly through email. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than indicating a loss of economic coordination, the data suggests a transition in how South Africans communicate and engage in the economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, as the use of physical mail declined, mobile broadband access surged, providing 85.6% of households with internet access by 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa’s post office problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) published its 2025 State of the ICT Sector report, noting a worrying decline in the number of registered letters sent domestically.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Registered letter delivery is a reserved postal service, which means that only the South African Post Office (SAPO) is legally permitted to provide this service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, local registered letter volumes were 147.7 million, but this figure dropped to 142.7 million in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the volume of registered letters processed at International Mail Centres experienced a slight increase, rising by approximately 67,000 letters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis small increase does not significantly offset the broader decline in total registered letters,\u201d ICASA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn 2025, total registered letter delivery services decreased from 152,961,335 in 2024 to 148,044,754, reflecting a continued decline in domestic letter usage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past two years, the number of registered letters sent in South Africa has fallen to less than half of the 326 million sent domestically and 5 million sent internationally between September 2020 and September 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 30 September 2021 to 30 September, 2022, nearly 320 million registered letters were sent domestically, along with 4.2 million letters sent abroad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, significant trouble emerged between 30 September 2022 and 30 September 2023, when the total volume of registered letters declined by approximately 73 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this period, the South African Post Office faced severe financial and operational challenges, resulting in the closure of around 120 branches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situation worsened in July 2023, when a landlord at one of its branches sought a provisional liquidation order due to the Post Office’s failure to pay rent, resulting in the entity being placed under business rescue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The business rescue plan included significant cuts to branches and staff over the following two and a half years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decline in registered mail continued to accelerate between 30 September 2023 and 30 September 2024, with an additional year-on-year drop of 100 million letters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chart below, taken from ICASA\u2019s 2025 State of the ICT Sector report, tracks the volume of registered letter services in South Africa from 2021 to 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAPO registered domestic and international mail volumes from 2021 to 2025<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In South Africa, 67.4% of households receive no physical mail at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":863963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[10576,3004],"class_list":["post-863957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-general-household-survey","tag-sapo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863957"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":863984,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863957\/revisions\/863984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}