Zip codes for South Africa

Postcode System of South Africa

South Africa is located at the southern tip of the African continent, surrounded by the sea and bordering in the north with Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Swaziland. In the middle of the village there is the enclave Lesotho, a kingdom entirely surrounded by South Africa. On the southern coast lies the Head of Good Hope. At the east of that, Cape Agulhas is the southern tip of the continent, where the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean meet. The Federal Republic has three distinct capitals: while the executive is headed by Pretoria, the headquarters of the Government, Parliament's legislative power is in Cape Town, and in Bloemfontein there is the Court of Appeal, headquarters of the judiciary. Because of colonization, the notion of the Parthian was born, which influenced the Republic of South Africa, envisaging an organized ethnic division, between the "white" and the "black" population.

South Africa - Divided country

The notion of Apartheid was not only of an ideological nature, but also influenced the geographical allocation, the racial segregation in the country. Since 1945, so-called Homelands have been founded, constituted by the territories of the traditional tribes and after the war agreements, also with their partners. There were altogether ten of these traditional divisions in South Africa. With targeted and forced transfers, attempts were made to avoid the strengthening of an unified state dominated by the black population. For this reason, citizens of color were deported to the reserves, which officially had their own administration. From this system, at the end of the nineties, the new South African administrative system emerged, which became operative in 1994 with the end of Apartheid and envisaged the reintegration of the quasi-independent Homelands into the political structure of South Africa. The former provinces (Capo, Natal, Orange and Transvaal) have been replaced by nine new provinces, which are nowadays divided into 52 districts. These nine provinces are the Western Cape Province, the North Cape Province, the Eastern Cape Province, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, the Northwestern Provinces, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo. For this reason, the postal codes system, which was established before the end of the Parthesse, does not exactly follow the provincial boundaries, but it is oriented to five large postal regions.

Four numbers for South Africa

In South Africa, the postal codes are made up of four numbers. This system has existed since 1973 in the country most located to the south of the entire continent, when the republic was still composed of the old provinces, respectively by the Homelands. Considering the numeric code, the first two numbers refer to the five postal provinces, which are tied only in a very broad sense to the nine provinces of today. The last two digits are for the location respectively for the postal district. The five mail regions are as follows:

1. Northern Region (includes the provinces of Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and much of Limpopo): uses the codes from 0001 to 2899
2. Eastern Region (includes the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and the eastern part of the Eastern Cape): uses the codes from 2900 to 4730
3. Southern Region (includes the rest of Eastern Cape and Eastern Cape): uses codes from 4731 to 6499
4. Western Region (includes the provinces of Western Cape and Western Cape): uses codes from 6500 to 8299
5. Central Region (includes the remaining areas of North Cape and Free State): uses the codes from 8300 to 9999

South African Address Details

• In South Africa, it is customary especially in rural areas, not to send physical mail, but to use mailboxes. The last two numbers of the ZIP code indicate what type of address the shipment is destined for: while "00" in the plurality of cases indicates a mailbox, numbers from "01" refer to tax addresses.
• The line above the ZIP code (normally reserved for the location) in South Africa is mostly capitalized. On the other hand, the names of the province are only indicated if the ZIP code are not present.
• In large cities, it is also common to use the neighborhood name in combination with the postal code, without mentioning the name of the street. If you want to arrange an expedition to the University of Pretoria (located in the Hatfield neighborhood) then you must use the following address:

University of Pretoria
Hatfield
0028
SOUTH AFRICA