Yes, SAPO does take forever, and does deliver whatever they don't take, and you generally have to wait 6 months for it. However DHL and other couriers ( so long as they do not use the broken SAPO local leg) are pretty fast, though you will pay for the service.
Waybill number should be trackable on DHL website though, so if it was never tracked then either he did not send it, or used an expired waybill number instead, or just made one up.
With SAPO that R25.85 per parcel is annoying, they should have just said R26, and not have had to worry about the 15c change every time I go to stand in the line at Durmain to get a parcel. Tuesday it was a nice 2 hour line, got a chair to assist the nice Gogo ahead of me, as with crutches she really needed a rest. She sat, and her son stood there to get to the counter for the SASSA payout.