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South African Standard Time

SAST redirects here. For the comedy programme, see Short Attention Span Theater.

South African Standard Time, or SAST, is a time zone used by all of South Africa, as well as Swaziland and Lesotho. The zone is two hours ahead of UTC (UTC+2) and is the same as Central Africa Time, used in countries to the north and east of South Africa. Solar noon in this time zone occurs at 30° E in SAST, effectively making Durban and Pietermaritzburg at the correct solar noon point. Everywhere west of 22.5° E effectively experiences year-round daylight saving time due to its location in true UTC+1 but still being in SAST, thus sunrise and sunset are relatively late in Cape Town compared to the rest of South Africa.

To illustrate; daylight hours for South Africa's western and eastern-most major cities:

• Cape Town: Jan 1st: 05:38–20:01, Jul 1st: 07:52–17:48
• Durban: Jan 1st: 04:58–19:00, Jul 1st: 06:52–17:07

Daylight saving time is not observed in this time zone.