.za

Overview

• .za is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for South Africa.
• The letters "za" derive from the Dutch name for South Africa, Zuid-Afrika.
• The namespace is managed and regulated by the .ZA Domain Name Authority (ZADNA).
• Most domains are registered under the second-level label .co.za.

History

• Introduced on 7 November 1990.
• ZADNA is the sponsoring authority responsible for regulation.
• Registry operations have been handled by entities referenced as ZA Central Registry; as of October 2022 the ZA Registry Consortium (ZARC) was contracted as Registry Operator for zones including .co.za, .net.za, .org.za and .web.za.

Usage and Audience

• Primary audience: entities connected with South Africa, including businesses, government, schools, non-profit organisations and individuals.
• Common use:
  • General commercial and personal sites predominantly use .co.za.
  • Government institutions use .gov.za.
  • Education and research institutions use .ac.za and .edu.za.
  • Non-commercial organisations commonly use .org.za.
• Web/technical snapshot (reported October 2024):
  • Around 29.39% of .za sites served over HTTPS.
  • Apache is the most popular web server for .za (about 66.56%), followed by Microsoft-IIS (about 11.60%).

Registration Rules

• Registrations are taken at the third level beneath a set of approved second-level domains (SLDs), e.g. example.co.za, example.org.za.
• Restrictions:
  • None for .co.za (general use by South African and non-South African persons and entities).
  • Various restrictions apply for other SLDs, often tied to eligibility (for example .gov.za for government entities, .mil.za for Department of Defence, .ac.za for higher education).
• Applicant warranties and obligations (registrant agreement highlights):
  • Applicant must warrant the right to use and register the domain name without restriction.
  • Applicant must believe registration and use will not infringe third-party legal rights, including trademarks and company names.
  • Domain must not be used for unlawful purposes such as distributing malware, operating botnets, phishing, piracy, counterfeiting, fraud or misleading activities.
• Available second-level domains (selected approved SLDs):
  • .ac.za — academic and tertiary societies
  • .co.za — general commercial and personal use
  • .edu.za — further education and private colleges
  • .gov.za — South African government departments and entities
  • .law.za — legal firms
  • .mil.za — Department of Defence and related institutions
  • .net.za — network and internet infrastructure providers
  • .nom.za — personal names
  • .org.za — non-commercial entities
  • .school.za — schools (with provincial sublabels such as .gp.school.za, .wcape.school.za)
  • .web.za — general use

SEO and Brand Impact

• .za is widely recognised within South Africa and commonly trusted for local organisations because it signals South African presence and relevance.
• Adoption of HTTPS within the zone (approx. 29.39% as of October 2024) indicates growing but not universal use of secure transport across .za sites.
• The dominance of .co.za for commercial sites makes it the primary brand domain for businesses targeting South African audiences.

Notable Cases or Examples

• The namespace includes a mix of active approved SLDs, dormant SLDs and some privately held or historic labels.
• Examples of prominent SLD usage:
  • .co.za as the principal commercial/personal label in active use.
  • .gov.za for government services and communications.
  • ZADNA removed a number of historic or dormant domains from the .za zone on 7 August 2009, and some former SLDs have been deleted or put on hold over time.

% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       ZA

organisation: ZA Domain Name Authority
address:      72 New Road,
address:      Glen Austin AH,
address:      Midrand Gauteng 1685
address:      South Africa

contact:      administrative
name:         .ZA ADMIN
organisation: ZA Domain Name Authority
address:      72 New Road, Glen Austin AH
address:      Midrand Gauteng 1685
address:      South Africa
phone:        +27 (0)10 020 3910
fax-no:       +27 (0)10 020 3919
e-mail:       dnsadmin@zadna.org.za

contact:      technical
name:         .ZADNA Technical
organisation: ZA Domain Name Authority
address:      72 New Road,
address:      Glen Austin AH
address:      Midrand Gauteng 1685
address:      South Africa
phone:        +27 (0)10 020 3910
fax-no:       +27 (0)10 020 3919
e-mail:       dnstech@zadna.org.za

nserver:      NSZA.IS.CO.ZA 196.4.160.27
nserver:      ZA-NS.ANYCAST.PCH.NET 2001:500:14:6055:ad:0:0:1 204.61.216.55
nserver:      ZA1.DNSNODE.NET 194.146.106.78 2001:67c:1010:19:0:0:0:53
ds-rdata:     45749 8 2 3e2b0b7e6063ca11400fa4b54d8a530888234cd0eb3b5fbf820c0750784da84e

whois:        

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.zadna.org.za/

created:      1990-11-07
changed:      2025-04-16
source:       IANA