![Source [1]](https://www.idata-it.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Source-1.jpg)
Source [1]
Part one of this article showcased that it’s certainly not small pocket change when it comes to the ongoing cost of renaming streets in South Africa. The further impact of this will now be explored in part two of this article where we look at changes to South African Post Codes and Suburbs which affects addressing in SA.
As previously discussed, there is an ongoing number of place name changes being proposed by the South African Geographical Names Council [2]. In addition to this, municipalities (eight metropolitan municipalities, 44 district municipalities and 226 local municipalities) and other property development bodies in the country affect the naming and access to existing and newly developed streets, where individuals reside and businesses operate from. None of these bodies is regulated by any central governmental authority and is effectively autonomous and independent of each other. This creates problems in managing and maintaining customer databases where physical and postal addresses are used.
Therefore, the effective management of the SA address, composed of streets, suburbs and postcodes, needs to happen reactively. That is to say that SA individuals and businesses are responsible for informing their service providers of changes to their address that they are aware of, or new street and suburb place names in that the of new residential, commercial and industrial land developments.
Changes to the suburb name or relevant postcode for a given street name affects mail delivery directly but also a host of other public and private services indirectly, including verification of proof of residence which is of critical importance for FICA and financial Know-Your-Customer compliance.
IDATA as the appointed service provider to the South African Post Office (SAPO) since 2004, and in servicing its public and private clients has managed and actively researched changes to the SA suburb postcode file. We note on average approximately 50 changes every month to the suburb- postcode table file, of approximately 16 000 records, which includes both street and box related postcodes. Of these changes, 80% are new suburb additions and on average there are 4 suburbs per postcode (with a maximum of 210).
The number of streets per suburb varies considerably, with an approximate average of 30 streets per suburb. Therefore, 50 changes per month to the suburb-postcode file, potentially affects up to 1 500 street per month (including box addresses). The total number of actual delivery points affected is within the range of 3-10 times this number (4 500 – 15 000). That potentially up to 15 000 addressed properties affected per month, such as private residences and places of business (not taking into consideration multi-unit complexes, with multiple letterboxes per complex, which would significantly increase this number)
As per the recent 2017 global data management report [3], the importance of information technology departments in the creation of robust data management programs cannot be understated. At IDATA, we are also able to provide recent and better quality Point of Contact data for your non-contactable customers. Contact us to find out how we can be of service to you.
