IANA tz database · zone identifier

Africa/Johannesburg

The IANA tz database identifier for South Africa Standard Time in South Africa. Store this string — not the abbreviation, not the offset — and your timestamps stay correct forever.

UTC+02:00Abbreviation SASTNo DST — never observed

Time in Africa/Johannesburg☾ Night

01:01:06

Thursday, July 16, 2026

Offset

UTC+02:00

Abbreviation

SAST

DST

No DST

Current offset

UTC+02:00

same year-round

Abbreviation

SAST

used year-round

DST behaviour

Never

has never observed daylight saving

Country

🇿🇦 South Africa

ISO 3166: ZA · view country page →

Using this identifier

The string to put in your code.

Africa/Johannesburg is the identifier to use in code and config for this region. Every modern language, database, and OS resolves it through the same tz database, so the examples here behave identically everywhere.

Avoid storing SAST or +02:00 — abbreviations are ambiguous and fixed offsets can't follow rule changes.

// format a date in this zone

new Intl.DateTimeFormat('en-US', {

timeZone: 'Africa/Johannesburg',

dateStyle: 'full', timeStyle: 'long'

}).format(new Date());

Offset & DST behaviour

One offset,
82 years.

Africa/Johannesburg has kept UTC+02:00 year-round since 19 March 1944 — no daylight saving and no offset changes on record since. It is among the most stable identifiers in the database.

Every offset this zone has kept

Keeping this offset since

19 March 1944

Next transition

None scheduled

no DST rules exist for this zone

Safe to assume

Local = UTC + 2h, always

…but store the identifier anyway

Technical record

The database entry, in full.

source: IANA tz database

IdentifierAfrica/Johannesburg

ISO country codeZA🇿🇦 South Africa

Reference coordinates26.25°S, 28.00°Etz database reference point

Standard offsetUTC+02:00abbreviation SAST

Daylight offset—daylight saving has never been observed

Where it applies

All of South Africa, one clock.

Looking for travel-friendly info? See Johannesburg or South Africa Standard Time.

🇿🇦

South Africa

62M people, one time zone. The whole country resolves to Africa/Johannesburg.

Related identifiers

Nearby in the database.

Same zone group · South Africa Standard Time

other identifiers keeping SAST

Africa/MaseruLesotho Africa/MbabaneEswatini

Same offset · UTC+02:00

other zones keeping this offset right now

Africa/BlantyreMalawi · Central Africa Time Africa/BujumburaBurundi · Central Africa Time Africa/GaboroneBotswana · Central Africa Time Africa/HarareZimbabwe · Central Africa Time Africa/JubaSouth Sudan · Central Africa Time Africa/KhartoumSudan · Central Africa Time

Frequently asked questions

Answers specific to this identifier — generated from the database record. Can't find what you need? Email [email protected].

What UTC offset is Africa/Johannesburg?: Africa/Johannesburg is UTC+02:00, year-round. The offset never changes because the zone does not observe daylight saving time.
Does Africa/Johannesburg observe daylight saving time?: No. Africa/Johannesburg has never observed DST — it has kept UTC+02:00 continuously since 19 March 1944.
Which country uses Africa/Johannesburg?: South Africa. The identifier covers the whole country.
Is Africa/Johannesburg the same as SAST?: Africa/Johannesburg is one of the IANA zones that keeps South Africa Standard Time (SAST). Use Africa/Johannesburg in software — SAST is a human-friendly label, not a valid identifier.

Free · Developer API

This zone, as JSON.

Everything on this page — offset, abbreviation, DST rules, coordinates — from one endpoint, always current with the latest tzdb release.

GET /v1/timezones Live

countries, cities, convert, DST transitions coming next.

Get your free API key →

// this identifier, resolved live

GET /v1/timezones?iana=Africa/Johannesburg

{

"iana": "Africa/Johannesburg",

"utc_offset": "+02:00",

"abbreviation": "SAST",

"observes_dst": false,

"country": "ZA"

}