| Light Blue | Cape Verde Time[a] (UTC−1) |
| Blue | Greenwich Mean Time (UTC) |
| Red | (UTC+1)[b] |
| Yellow | (UTC+2) |
| Ochre | (UTC+2) |
| (UTC+3) | |
| Green | East Africa Time (UTC+3) |
| Turquoise | (UTC+4) |
South African Standard Time (SAST) is thetime zone used by all ofSouth Africa as well asEswatini andLesotho. The zone is two hours ahead ofUTC (UTC+02:00) and is the same asCentral Africa Time.Daylight saving time is not observed in either time zone. Solar noon in this time zone occurs at30° E in SAST, effectively makingPietermaritzburg at the correct solar noon point, withJohannesburg andPretoria slightly west at28° E andDurban slightly east at31° E. Thus, most of South Africa's population experience true solar noon at approximately 12:00 daily.
The westernNorthern Cape andWestern Cape differ, however. Everywhere on land west of 22°30′ E effectively experiences year-round daylight saving time because of its location in trueUTC+01:00 but still being in South African Standard Time. Sunrise and sunset are thus relatively late inCape Town, compared to the rest of the country.
To illustrate, daylight hours for South Africa's western and easternmost major cities:
| Summer solstice | Winter solstice | |
|---|---|---|
| Cape Town | 05:32–19:57 | 07:51–17:45 |
| Durban | 04:52–18:56 | 06:51–17:04 |
The South African National Time Standard, or 'SA Time' Master Clock, is maintained at the Time and Frequency Laboratory of the National Metrology Institute of South Africa (NMISA) at Pretoria and is distributed publicly by anNTP Internet Time service.[1][2]
Before 8 February 1892, there was no uniformity of time in South Africa andlocal mean time was in use at the various towns. In 1892, a railway conference was held inBloemfontein and discussed difficulty of working a railway system, in the absence of a uniform time system. The governments of theOrange Free State,Transvaal and theCape Colony officially adopted a uniform standard time ofUTC+01:30 which was defined as mean time 22.5° east of Greenwich.[3] On 1 March 1903GMT+02:00 was adopted, which became the currentUTC+02:00 whenUTC replacedGMT for most purposes.[4][5]
Prior to 1 March 1903, theColony of Natal was already using a uniform time supplied by theNatal Observatory. The observatory'slocal mean time was (UTC+01:52).
South Africa observed a daylight saving time of GMT+03:00 (UTC+03:00) between 20 September 1942 to 21 March 1943 and 19 September 1943 to 19 March 1944.[6]
South African Standard Time is defined as "Coordinated Universal Time plus two hours" (UTC+02:00) as defined in South African National Government Gazette No. 40125 of 8 July 2016.[7]