.za is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for South Africa. The .za namespace is managed and regulated by the .za Domain Name Authority (ZADNA).^[1] Most domains are registered under the second-level domain .co.za.^[2]

ZA is an abbreviation of the Dutch name for the country: Zuid-Afrika.

Management

None of the official names for South Africa can be abbreviated to ZA, which is an abbreviation of the Dutch Zuid-Afrika. Dutch was considered an official language in the Union of South Africa until 1961; it subsequently lost its synonymous status with Afrikaans in 1983. Suid-Afrika is the standard spelling in Afrikaans, but the .sa domain is used by Saudi Arabia. Zuid-Afrika has a history of usage: the international vehicle code for South Africa has been "ZA" since 1936. ZAR serves as the ISO 4217 currency code for the South African rand. South African aircraft registration prefixes also start with Z.

Second-level domains

.ZA has a Second Level Domain (SLD) Structure.^[3]

Approved

• .ac.za: South African academic and tertiary societies^[4]
• .co.za: general use by South African and non-South African persons and entities
• .edu.za: South African further education training and private colleges
• .gov.za: South African government & its departments and entities
• .law.za: South African legal firms
• .mil.za: South African Department of Defence & its institutions
• .net.za: primarily for network & internet infrastructure providers
• .nom.za: personal names, not organisations
• .org.za: primarily for South African non-commercial entities.
• .school.za: for schools in South Africa
  • .ecape.school.za: Eastern Cape
  • .fs.school.za: Free State
  • .gp.school.za: Gauteng
  • .kzn.school.za: Kwazulu-Natal
  • .mpm.school.za: Mpumalanga
  • .ncape.school.za: Northern Cape
  • .lp.school.za: Limpopo
  • .nw.school.za: North West
  • .wcape.school.za: Western Cape
• .web.za: general use by South Africans & non–South Africans

Dormant

• .alt.za: Historical registrants
• .ngo.za: for non-governmental organisations. New registrations pending .za DNA public consultation process
• .tm.za: for trademarks. On hold pending establishment of the .ZA DNA

Private

• .agric.za: ARC & Company
• .grondar.za: Mark R V Murray
• .nis.za: Network Information Systems

Former (deleted)

ZADNA removed a number of domains from the .za zone on 7 August 2009:^[5]

• .bourse.za: for all companies which are listed on the JSE Securities Exchange
• .city.za: for municipal governments
• .cybernet.za: Infront Investments Five cc
• .db.za: De Beers
• .iaccess.za: Compustat
• .imt.za: Institute for Maritime Technology
• .inca.za: Internetworking Cape
• .landesign.za: Lan Design (no longer exists)
• .olivetti.za: Olivetti/Mark Elkins
• .pix.za: Proxima Information Exchange

Statistics

Currently around 29.39% of the .za internet is served via secured HTTPS protocol, with the Let's Encrypt Authority X3 being the most popular SSL certificate.^[6] Apache is the most popular web server, serving 66.56% of the .za domains, followed by Microsoft-IIS serving 11.60% of the total .za domains.^[6] The most common 1st character in domain names is "c", with 10.76% of .za domains starting with this character.^[6]