Traffic officer saves historic postbox
MAKANA municipality’s vigilant chief traffic officer Coenraad Hanekom may have prevented one of Grahamstown’s historic red postboxes from being removed.
Hanekom says he spotted the box being dug out by SA Post Office staff yesterday morning and stopped to ask why.
It would seem that many postboxes are becoming obsolete in an electronic world where communication is instant.
“I was told that there had been a provincial instruction to remove all postboxes no longer in use.”
Quick as a flash, Hanekom sent off a proposal from the municipality undertaking to close the letter slots of the picturesque post boxes if the SA Post Office would keep them in place.
He said the proposal was under consideration and the Sapo had, in the meantime, undertaken not to remove any more.
Infuriated residents yesterday took to social media to voice their anger at the removal of the box.
Grahamstown boasts a number of historical letterboxes, including the oldest one in the country which is situated outside St Andrew’s College.
According to SA History Online (Saho), the roughly 158-year-old box was one of five such boxes brought to Cape Town in 1860.
Smith & Hawkes in Birmingham, Great Britain reportedly manufactured only 19 of this particular fluted box. Some believe there are only five worldwide that have survived.
Sapo spokesman, Johan Kruger, yesterday confirmed that some of the city’s obsolete postboxes were being removed.
“The intention is not to remove any of the historical postboxes in Grahamstown, nor do we intend to remove postboxes that are regularly used.”
He said the Sapo also had a museum in Pretoria where historical postal artefacts that were no longer considered safe in their public spaces could be removed and displayed.