Postal codes were introduced in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

on 8 October 1973, with the introduction of automated sorting.

Format

South African postal codes consist of four digits. Mail may be delivered either to the physical address or to a

PO Box A post office box (commonly abbreviated as P.O. box, or also known as a postal box) is a uniquely addressable lockable box located on the premises of a post office. In some regions, particularly in Africa, there is no door to door delivery ...

, particularly in rural areas where no street delivery is available. In addition, many large organisations may use Private Bag addresses, with mail dispatched to the holder by a mail contractor. In the case of cities and large towns, however, the last two digits of the postal code indicate the mode of delivery. The digits "01" indicate a street address and "00" a PO Box or Private Bag address, with addresses in Port Elizabeth, for example, using the following format: 300 Kempston Road Port Elizabeth 6001 PO Box 1840 Port Elizabeth 6000 In Pretoria, however, a different format is used, with "02" indicating a street address, and "01" indicating a PO Box or Private Bag address. 370 Church Street Pretoria 0002 PO Box 427 Pretoria 0001 A feature of South African postal addresses, also common to Australia, is that it is only necessary to include the suburb, not the city, for example, in the case of

Yeoville Yeoville is an inner city neighbourhood of Johannesburg, in the province of Gauteng, South Africa. It is located in Region F (previously Region 8). It is widely known and celebrated for its diverse, pan-African population but notorious for it ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

: 43 Cavendish Road Yeoville 2198

Former postal codes

The South African postal code system was previously used in

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

, then "

South West Africa South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola (Portuguese colony before 1 ...

", including the enclave of

Walvis Bay Walvis Bay ( en, lit. Whale Bay; af, Walvisbaai; ger, Walfischbucht or Walfischbai) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The ci ...

, which remained part of South Africa until 1994. It was allocated the number range 9000–9299.''South African Panorama'' - Volume 22
South African Information Service, 1977, page 9 Following independence, use of the South African postal code system was discontinued.''The comprehensive handbook of the postmarks of German South West Africa, South West Africa, Namibia''
Ralph F. Putzel, R.F. Putzel, 1991, page 173

References

External links

Find a South African Postal Code
*
South African Post Office, 2019 archiveSouth African Postal Code Geography
*https://en.youbianku.com/South_Africa {{South Africa topics

Post Post or POST commonly refers to: *Mail, the postal system, especially in Commonwealth of Nations countries **An Post, the Irish national postal service **Canada Post, Canadian postal service **Deutsche Post, German postal service **Iraqi Post, Ira ...

Postal system of South Africa