.za is the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

country code A country code is a short alphanumeric identification code for countries and dependent areas. Its primary use is in data processing and communications. Several identification systems have been developed. The term ''country code'' frequently re ...

top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domain name, domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the DNS root zone, root zone of the nam ...

(

ccTLD A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all tw ...

) for

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The .za namespace is managed and regulated by the .za Domain Name Authority (ZADNA). Most domains are registered under the

second-level domain In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a second-level domain (SLD or 2LD) is a domain that is directly below a top-level domain (TLD). For example, in , is the second-level domain of the TLD. Second-level domains commonly refer to the organ ...

.co.za. ZA is an abbreviation of the Dutch name for the country of South Africa: ''Zuid-Afrika''.

Origin of the name

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 The Union of South Africa (; , ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day South Africa, Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the British Cape Colony, Cape, Colony of Natal, Natal, Tra ...

until 1961; it subsequently lost its

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

ous status with

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

in 1983. ''Suid-Afrika'' is the standard spelling in Afrikaans, but the .sa domain is used by

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. ''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 ISO 4217 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that defines alpha codes and numeric codes for the representation of currencies and provides information about the relationships between individ ...

currency code for the

South African rand The South African rand, or simply the rand, (currency sign, sign: R; ISO 4217, code: ZAR) is the official currency of South Africa. It is subdivided into 100 Cent (currency), cents (sign: "c"), and a comma separates the rand and cents. The Sou ...

. South African

aircraft registration An aircraft registration is a code unique to a single aircraft, required by international convention to be marked on the exterior of every civil aircraft. The registration indicates the aircraft's country of registration, and functions much li ...

prefixes also start with ''Z''.

Second-level domains

.ZA has a Second Level Domain (SLD) Structure.

Approved

* .ac.za: South African academic and tertiary societies * .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 The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

. ** .fs.school.za: Free State. ** .gp.school.za:

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

. ** .kzn.school.za:

Kwazulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

. ** .mpm.school.za:

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

. ** .ncape.school.za:

Northern Cape The Northern Cape ( ; ; ) is the largest and most sparsely populated Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley, South Africa, Kimberley. It includes ...

. ** .lp.school.za:

Limpopo Limpopo () is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a ...

. ** .nw.school.za: North West. ** .wcape.school.za:

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

. * .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

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...

s. 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: * .bourse.za: for all companies which are listed on the

JSE Securities Exchange JSE Limited (previously the JSE Securities Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange) is the largest stock exchange in Africa. It is located in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, after it moved from downtown Johannesburg in 2000. In 2003 ...

. * .city.za: for municipal governments. * .cybernet.za: Infront Investments Five cc. * .db.za:

De Beers The De Beers Group is a South African–British corporation that specializes in the diamond industry, including mining, exploitation, retail, inscription, grading, trading and industrial diamond manufacturing. The company is active in open-pi ...

. * .iaccess.za: Compustat. * .imt.za: Institute for Maritime Technology. * .inca.za: Internetworking Cape. * .landesign.za: Lan Design (no longer exists). * .olivetti.za:

Olivetti Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been owned b ...

/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 Let's Encrypt is a Non-profit organisation, non-profit certificate authority run by Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) that provides X.509 public key certificate, certificates for Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption at no charge. It is ...

Authority X3 being the most popular SSL certificate. 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. The most common 1st character in domain names is "c", with 10.76% of .za domains starting with this character.

References

External links

ZADNA website

{{DEFAULTSORT:ZA Country code top-level domains Internet in South Africa Internet properties established in 1990 sv:Toppdomän#Z