For 37 years, Donald Tshuma has been delivering the Sunday Times — and one Sandton couple has been receiving it from him without fail.
At 1.15am every Sunday, while most of Joburg sleeps, Tshuma gets on his bicycle. Wind, rain, freezing cold winter temperatures or summer heat — it makes no difference. From his home in Linksfield, he cycles some 15km to Morningside, an hour-long ride in the dark, to collect and sort bundles of newspapers.
By the time many households are stirring for coffee, Donald has already sorted, packed, and delivered the papers and begun his long cycle back home.
He has been doing this since 1989.
“I don’t remember exactly how old I am — maybe 61 or 62,” he says. “And I don’t remember how I got this job, but I have been delivering every Sunday since that year.”
During the week, he works three gardening jobs to supplement the income the Sunday deliveries bring.
I get daily news online now, including from TimesLIVE, so I cancelled the other subscriptions. But my Sundays have to include the Sunday Times. That’s not going to change
— Robert Giuricich
One of the homes on his route belongs to Robert and Italia Giuricich in Sandton.
For 26 years, Tshuma has delivered the Sunday Times to their doorstep — missing only one Sunday in more than two decades. Even then, the paper arrived late, but it arrived.
The Giuricichs have been subscribers for 56 years, since the year they married. But Robert’s relationship with the paper stretches back even further.
“I am 82 years old. My father had the paper delivered already in the days before I got married, and it was a family habit for all of us to read it when it arrived,” he recalls. “Over the years, and still today, there is no Sunday without the Sunday Times. It’s a lifelong habit which I can’t seem to break — I still want to feel the paper in my hands, and I still find it a very good read,” he says.
In total, Robert has been reading the publication for nearly seven decades.
While he once subscribed to several newspapers, the rise of digital media changed that.
“I get daily news online now, including from TimesLIVE, so I cancelled the other subscriptions. But my Sundays have to include the Sunday Times. That’s not going to change. We travel often and simply notify the circulation department — they credit us without any fuss. We have never had a problem.”
Italia, 83, says she has largely disengaged from the daily news cycle — “it becomes exhausting” — but there is one column she refuses to miss.
“I agree with Robert on keeping the subscription just because of Ndumiso Ngcobo’s column. It is witty, he writes beautifully, and being a fellow Catholic makes it even more special. I enjoy the amusing memories he shares of his childhood.”
The couple speak warmly of Tshuma.
“He delivers without fail like clockwork,” says Robert. “Only once was he late, for a good reason which I don’t remember — but it still arrived. He is a very pleasant person."
Tshuma’s supervisor, Mokgethi Kgomo, says he never fails to arrive for work.
“He is very reliable and a valued employee, and there are never problems.”
The Sunday Times is distributed by Xolile Nyoka, who has his own story with the paper. He began his career as a messenger at what was then Newspaper Circulation Services (NCS), handling redeliveries for client complaints and transporting mail between regional offices.
“In 2013, when a long-serving delivery agent in Morningside retired, I took over, and I built my own distribution business.”
Today, his company manages newspaper deliveries across Midrand, Fourways, Roodepoort, Soweto, Vosloorus, Sandton, Morningside and Bryanston — a route network sustained by early mornings, tight margins and long-standing relationships with readers who still expect their paper at the door.
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