Pretoria - Post Report Question and Answers
How do you send and receive your letters and package mail? Are local postal facilities adequate?
I don't. I wouldn't use the local mail it's very unreliable. In-country courrier services are very good for local deliveries or DHL for overseas. - Apr 2023
Embassy pouch. We rarely need to order anything, unless it's something very specific. Local postal service has completely collapsed and is almost non-functioning. Local orders are filled by courier companies. - Mar 2023
Diplomatic pouch. Local postal facilities are not adequate. Pouch has been very fast this year, one to two weeks to get here. - Jun 2022
Local postal facilities are totally inadequate, but courier services are good and can deliver your cases of wine from Cape Town in 48 hours for fewer than $10. We rely on pouch for mail to and from the US, but even that can be problematic. There was an issue with theft in 2019, and it never seemed to be fully resolved. - Jan 2020
Pouch. Letters take about 3 weeks (either direction), receiving packages is slightly less. Local postal facilities are not adequate and thus we only use the pouch (wish we had a DPO). - Dec 2019
Pouch mail takes about 10 days to get here from the US. - Mar 2019
There is no DPO so you are stuck with pouch and it seems like it takes ages. No. - Jun 2018
I use the pouch and it is fine. As an experiment, I used South African mail to send a few items to the USA. It took 4 weeks. I won't repeat the experiment, as pilfering is understood to be widespread. Note that shipping packages to the USA in the pouch means a very strict size limit (nothing larger than about a videotape-sized box). Don't assume that you can buy tons of souvenirs and ship them in a big box to family and friends. - Jan 2018
Diplomatic pouch. But they say the post works well here. - Jun 2012
Pouch is very limited outgoing (VHS tape). - Dec 2009
We use the embassy pouch. - Aug 2009
The Embassy has a pouch system to get mail. You can send letter sized mail and merchandise received through the pouch for returns. If you must send a box, the South African system will get it there but it will cost you a lot of money and may be pilfered. - Feb 2009
Pouch for incoming mail, DHL for outgoing packages. - Oct 2008
We can send and receive through the pouch. - Sep 2008
We use the pouch. - Jun 2008
