Telephone numbers in South Africa

South Africa has switched to a closed numbering system. From 16 January 2007 it became mandatory to dial the full 10 digit telephone number including the three-digit area code even for local calls. The trunk prefix is still '0', with the system generally organised geographically. All telephone numbers are 10 digits long (including the 3 for area code), except for certain Telkom special services. When dialed from another country, the '0' is omitted and replaced with the appropriate international access code.

Numbers were initially allocated when South Africa had four provinces, meaning that ranges are now split across the current nine provinces.

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 entire 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: Lichtenburg, Potchefstroom and Klerksdorp

02: 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

024: Somerset West (Became 021 in 1996)

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: Stanger

033: Pietermaritzburg and KwaZulu-Natal Midlands

034: Vryheid, Newcastle and Northern KZN

035: Zululand region: St. Lucia, Richards Bay

036: Drakensberg region: Ladysmith

039: South coast: Port Shepstone and interior, and Eastern Pondoland (in Eastern Cape)

04: Eastern Cape and eastern parts of the Western Cape:

040: Bhisho

041: Port Elizabeth 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: Mostly unused, partially allocated for Cellular use. Was South-West Africa (now Namibia) until 1992, when direct dialling was discontinued. and replaced by international dialling with the +264 country code. For example, for a call from South Africa to Windhoek, before and after 1992:

Before 1992: 061 xxx xxxx

After 1992: 09 26461 xxx xxxx

After Jan 2007: 00 26461 xxx xxxx

Cellular:

0603 - 0605: Cellular: Used by MTN

0606 - 0609: Cellular: Used by Vodacom

0610 - 0613: Cellular: Used by Cell C

0614: Cellular: Used by 8ta (Telkom)

0615: Cellular: Used by Cell C

0618 - 0624: Cellular: Used by Cell C

07: Cellular

0710: MTN (spill-over from 083)

0711 - 0716: Vodacom (spill-over from 082)

0717 - 0719: MTN (spill-over from 083)

072: Vodacom (spill-over from 082)

073: MTN (spill-over from 083)

074: Cell C (Cell C has allocated 0741 to Virgin Mobile)

0741: Virgin Mobile as of June 2006

076: Vodacom (spill-over from 082)

078: MTN (spill-over from 083)

079: Vodacom (spill-over from 082)

08: Special services

080: FreeCall, Toll-free, called party pays

0810: Cellular: MTN

0811 - 0815: Telkom Mobile (8ta)

0816: WBS Mobile (should be noted that Vodacom and MTN both have terminated SMS interconnect with WBS so SMS messages to/from this number range are /dev/null'ed)

0817: Telkom Mobile (8ta)

0818: Cellular: Vodacom

082: Cellular: Vodacom

083: Cellular: MTN

083-9 Cellular rates to Telkom lines, reroutes call to a telkom line and pays number owner for received calls

084: Cellular: Cell C

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^[1]

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: Pagers and Telkom CallAnswer voicemail

089: Maxinet, for polls and radio call-in services

Note that since 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.

09: Old International access code no longer in use.

There are still some non-automated exchanges which use longer dialing codes, mostly for 'Farm Lines' and remote areas with operator assisted exchanges.

References

• ITU allocations list