Telephone numbers in South Africa are administered by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa(ICASA). On 16 January 2007, the country switched to a closed numbering plan. It became mandatory to dial the full nine-digit national telephone number. For calls within the country, this is prefixed by trunk code 0 (zero), which is often included in listings of the area code. Area codes within the system are generally organized geographically. Special services by Telkom have numbers with special formats.
When dialed from another country, the national number is prefixed with the appropriate international access code and the telephone country code 27.
Background History Numbers were allocated when South Africa had only four provinces, meaning that ranges are now split across the current nine provinces.
Namibia South-West Africa (including Walvis Bay) was integrated into the South African numbering plan.South West Africa & Walvis Bay - Suidwes-Afrika & Walvisbaai, lolDepartment of Posts and Telecommunications, 1976 However, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) had already allocated country code 264 in the late 1960s.White Book, Volume 2, Part 1, International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee, International Telecommunication Union, 1969, page 29
Following its independence, Namibia discontinued direct dialing from South Africa and replaced it with international dialing using country code 264. For example, for a call from South Africa to Windhoek, before and after 1992:
Before 1992: 061 xxx xxxx After 1992: 09 26461 xxx xxxxOfficial South African Municipal Yearbook, S.A. Association of Municipal Employees, 1995, page 1161 After January 2007: 00 26461 xxx xxxxThe phone book: Cape peninsula, Telkom, Universal Web Printers, 2007, page 49
Lesotho Calls to Lesotho could be made using the access code 050 instead of the international code 266; for example, to call Maseru from South Africa, subscribers would dial 0501.Lesotho, David Ambrose, Winchester Press, 1983, page 846
Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe Calls to Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe could similarly be made using the regional codes 0192, 0194 and 0191, respectively, instead of the international codes 267, 268 and 263.Pretoria Telephone Directory, Department of Posts and Telecommunications, 1991, page 21
Number ranges
00 International access code effective from 16 October 2006 and mandatory from 16 January 2007.
01 The old Transvaal province, currently comprising Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and part of the North West: 010: New overlay plan for Johannesburg 011: Witwatersrand region around Johannesburg, currently code for the entirety of Greater Johannesburg 012: Pretoria and surrounding towns (also includes Brits) 013: Eastern Gauteng (Bronkhorstspruit) and Western and northern Mpumalanga: Middelburg, Witbank and Nelspruit 014: Northern North West and Southwestern Limpopo: Rustenburg and Modimolle 015: Northern and Eastern Limpopo: Polokwane 016: Vaal Triangle: Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark and Sasolburg, which constitutes an anomaly, since Sasolburg isn't the old Transvaal. 017: Southern Mpumalanga: Ermelo 018: Southern North West: Mahikeng, Lichtenburg, Potchefstroom and Klerksdorp
02 Two-thirds of the old Cape province, now comprising Western and Northern Cape: 021: Cape Town metropole and surrounds, including Stellenbosch, Somerset West and Gordon's Bay 022: Boland and West Coast: Malmesbury 023: Worcester and greater Karoo, including Beaufort West 027: Namaqualand (Northern Cape): Vredendal, Calvinia, Clanwilliam, Springbok, Alexander Bay, Port Nolloth 028: Southern region: Swellendam and Caledon / Hermanus region.
03 KwaZulu-Natal: 031: Durban 032: KZN North coast region: Verulam, Tongaat, Ballito and Stanger 033: Pietermaritzburg and KwaZulu-Natal Midlands 034: Vryheid, Newcastle and Northern KZN 035: Zululand region: St. Lucia, Richards Bay, Ulundi 036: Drakensberg region: Ladysmith 039: KwaZulu-Natal South Coast region: Port Shepstone and interior, and Eastern Pondoland (in Eastern Cape)
04 Remainder of one-third of old Cape province, now comprising Eastern Cape and eastern parts of the Western Cape: 040: Bhisho 041: Gqeberha and Uitenhage 042: Southern region: Humansdorp 043: East London and surrounds 044: Garden Route, including Oudtshoorn, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Mossel Bay and George 045: Central region: Queenstown 046: Southern region: Grahamstown, Bathurst, Port Alfred, Kenton-on-Sea 047: Mthatha / most of previous Transkei 048: Northern region: Steynsburg 049: Western region: Graaff-Reinet
05 Free State and Northern Cape 051: Central and southern region: Bloemfontein, and Aliwal North in E Cape 053: Kimberley, eastern part of Northern Cape, far west of NW province 054: Upington, Gordonia region 056: Northern Free State: Kroonstad 057: Northern Free State: Welkom (Goldfields region) 058: Eastern Free State: Bethlehem
06 (Cellular) Cellular
0600: Cellular: Used by Liquid Telecommunications (South Africa) 0601 - 0602: Cellular: Used by TelkomSA (8.ta) 0603 - 0605: Cellular: Used by MTN 0606 - 0609: Cellular: Used by Vodacom 061: Cellular: Used by Cell C 062: Cellular: Used by Cell C 0630 - 0635: Cellular: Used by MTN 0636 - 0637: Cellular: Used by Vodacom 0640: Cellular: Used by MTN 0641 - 0645: Cellular: Used by Cell C 0646 - 0649: Cellular: Used by Vodacom 0650 - 0654: Cellular: Used by Cell C 0655 - 0657: Cellular: Used by MTN 0658 - 0659: Cellular: Used by TelkomSA (8.ta) 066: Cellular: Used by Vodacom 0670 - 0672: Cellular: Used by TelkomSA 0673 - 0675: Cellular: Used by Vodacom 0676 - 0679: Cellular: Used by TelkomSA (8.ta) 0680 - 0685: Cellular: Used by TelkomSA (8.ta) 0686 - 0689: Cellular: Used by MTN 0690: Cellular: Used by MTN 0691 - 0699: Cellular: Used by TelkomSA (8.ta)
07 (Cellular) 0710: Cellular: Used by MTN 0711 - 0716: Cellular: Used by Vodacom 0717 - 0719: Cellular: Used by MTN 072: Cellular: Used by Vodacom 073: Cellular: Used by MTN 074: Cellular: Used by Cell C 0741: Cellular: Used by: Virgin Mobile as of June 2006 to September 2021 076: Cellular: Used by Vodacom 0771 - 0775: Cellular: Used by Vodacom 078: Cellular: Used by MTN 079: Cellular: Used by Vodacom
08 Cellular 0810: Cellular: Used by MTN 0811 - 0815: Cellular: Used by TelkomSA (8.ta) 0816: Cellular: Used by Rain 0817: Cellular: Used by TelkomSA (8.ta) 0818: Cellular: Used by Vodacom 0819: Cellular: Used by TelkomSA (8.ta) 082: Cellular: Used by Vodacom 083: Cellular: Used by MTN 084: Cellular: Used by Cell C
Special Services 080: FreeCall, Toll-free, called party pays 085: Cellular: USAL license holders - Vodacom and MTN have some prefixes out of this range for their USAL offerings 086: Sharecall, MaxiCall and premium-rate services, calls can be routed to regional offices automatically 0860: Sharecall Land line callers pay local call, called party pays long distance if applicable 0861: MaxiCall caller always pay long distance for call even if routed to local office 0862 - 9: Premium rate caller pays increasing rate linked to last digit 0862, 0865, 0866, 08673, 08774, 08676: Fax to Email caller always pay increasing rate linked to last digits 08622, 086294: Competition lines caller always pay premium rate 08671 - 08674: Information services caller always pay increasing rate linked to last digit 087: Value-added services (VoIP among others) 088: Fax Divert, Pagers and Telkom CallAnswer voicemail 089: Maxinet, for polls and radio call-in services
Note that from 10 November 2006, mobile number portability was introduced in the cellular market. The cellular prefixes as above are therefore not strictly applicable anymore, although they remain mostly unchanged.
09X XXX XXX (Premium-rate and machine-related numbers) 090: Premium-rate services 0902: Premium-rated adult services 091: Premium-rate services 092: Premium-rate services 096: Machine-related services (14-digit numbers) 097: Machine-related services (14-digit numbers) 098: Machine-related services (14-digit numbers)
There are still some non-automated exchanges which use longer dialing codes, mostly for "farm lines" and remote areas with operator-assisted exchanges.
09X XXX XXXX numbers are no longer in use in South Africa.
See also
Telecommunications in South Africa Internet in South Africa
References
External links Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) - South Africa's communication regulator How to call South Africa - howtophoneto.com