How to Find a South Africa Postal Code

The most dependable way to find a South African postal code is to use the lookup tools of the South African Post Office, the national postal operator, which allow a search by suburb, town or street. The choice of the right code depends mostly on one question: is this a street address or a PO Box?

Decide which kind of code you need

South Africa uses separate codes for street addresses and for post office boxes. Before searching, decide which one applies:

• For a house, flat, shop or office that a courier will visit, you need the street code for the suburb.
• For a PO Box, a Private Bag or a similar service at a post office, you need the box code for that post office.

Mixing them is the most common reason for a rejected or misrouted delivery. The two kinds are described in South Africa postal code format explained.

Search by suburb and city

Searching with the suburb name together with the city or town gives the street code. Suburb names are often repeated in different cities, so always enter the city or the province. If a large suburb returns more than one code, use the street name to narrow it down, since some suburbs are divided between delivery areas.

Verify the result

A few checks help avoid mistakes:

• The code should have exactly four digits. A leading zero must be present.
• The suburb in the result should be the same as in the address, not a neighbouring one.
• A recent bill, statement or parcel label sent to that address shows the code in practice.
• For a business, the contact page of its website normally has the address and the code the company itself uses.

When you are unsure

If two codes seem possible, ask the recipient, or ask the courier that will make the delivery; they normally use the street code for their own zones. Do not guess, because an incorrect code can change the delivery fee or delay the parcel.

Some addresses, such as those in informal settlements or in new developments, may not appear in a lookup by street at all. In that case the suburb code gets the parcel to the right area, and you need a different tool to show the location itself. A UPCS code (prefix ZA, as in ZA-XXXX-XXXX) marks an exact 3 m by 3 m cell on a map and can be sent with the order. It is not a postal code and is not issued by the post office, so it should be added to the address, not used instead of it. For more on this, see delivery and addressing in South Africa and the South Africa overview.