About .co.za Domains
.co.za is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) representing South Africa. It is administered by UniForum SA, which trades under the name Registry.net.za.
Who Can Register .co.za Domains
- Anyone can register a .co.za domain name. There are no eligibility restrictions.
- Individuals, businesses, organizations, and entities from South Africa or abroad may all register .co.za domains.
Registration Requirements and Restrictions
- Domain names must be 1 to 63 characters in length
- Allowed characters are:
- Letters (a-z)
- Numbers (0-9)
- Hyphens
- Hyphens cannot be used as the first or last character
- Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) containing Unicode characters are supported
Registration and Renewal Period
- Initial registration is for 1 year
- Subsequent renewals are for 1 year
- Expiring domains enter a 30 day grace period, after which they may be deleted
- Domains can be set to auto-renew to avoid expiration
Managing and Transferring Domains
- Registrar transfers are allowed after 60 days from initial registration
- An auth code may be required for transfers from certain registrars like Hexonet
- Transfer requests trigger an email vote requiring approval to process
- Transfers not approved within 5 days will be cancelled
Nameserver Requirements
- Between 0 and 5 nameservers can be configured
- Nameservers must be authoritative
- IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are allowed
- DNSSEC is not currently supported
Making Updates to Domains
- Updates like nameserver or contact changes can take up to 7 days to fully propagate
- Domains are locked while updates are processing
Cancelling and Redeeming Domains
- To cancel a .co.za domain, contact the domain registrar
- Expired domains can be redeemed during the 30 day grace period by renewing the domain