The timezone SAST in South Africa

Only 1 nationwide time zone

Standard time:	UTC +2	South Africa Standard Time (SAST)
Daylight saving time:	UTC +3	discontinued 1944

South Africa has an east-west extension of 14.2 degrees of longitude. Given the country's location in Southern Africa, this corresponds to about 1400 kilometers. With this still relatively small extension, the course of the sun is only slightly different at various positions in the country. The position of the sun in the west of the country differs from that in the east by only about 57 minutes. This means the sun rises and sets 57 minutes later in the west than in the east.


The South Africa Standard Time also applies in Lesotho and in Eswatini.

No more daylight saving time in South Africa

Due to the sun's orbit around the equator, the days are longer in summer (November to February in the southern hemisphere). Countries that switch to daylight saving time in the summer months align the daylight phase with the human rhythm. Unused bright morning hours are thus shifted into the evening (more information on daylight saving time here).

Due to the relative proximity to the equator, the impact in South Africa is not particularly large. Pretoria is only 2,850 km from the equator. A day in midsummer would then not last from 05:11 to 18:59, but from 06:11 to 19:59. The effect would be quite noticeable in the evening, but the sun rising later in the morning falls at a time when many people are already awake. Thus, in 1944, the decision was made to finally abandon daylight saving time in South Africa.

Changes in Daylight Saving Times

In South Africa Daylight Saving Time has been observed since 1942 until 03/19/1944.