Daylight saving time in Africa

Last updated

Time zones of Africa:

UTC-01:00
Cape Verde Time
UTC+-00:00
Greenwich Mean Time
UTC+01:00
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Central European Time
West Africa Time
UTC+02:00
Central Africa Time
Eastern European Time
Egypt Standard Time
South African Standard Time
UTC+03:00
East Africa Time
UTC+04:00
Mauritius Time
Seychelles Time
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The islands of Cape Verde are to the west of the African mainland.

Mauritius and the Seychelles are to the east and north-east of Madagascar respectively. TimeZones-Africa.svg
Time zones of Africa:
  UTC-01:00   Cape Verde Time
  UTC±00:00   Greenwich Mean Time
  UTC+01:00  
  UTC+02:00  
  UTC+03:00   East Africa Time
  UTC+04:00  
The islands of Cape Verde are to the west of the African mainland.
Mauritius and the Seychelles are to the east and north-east of Madagascar respectively.

African countries, apart from Egypt, do not use daylight saving time (DST) although some did in the past. Only the territories of the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla (Spain) and Madeira (Portugal) implement DST from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. Although these regions politically belong to Europe, they are geographically part of Africa. They have DST schedules according to European Union rules.

Contents

African countries that used to use DST

Egypt

The British first instituted daylight saving time in Egypt during the Second World War, specifically between 1940 and 1945. The practice was stopped after the war, but resumed 12 years later, in 1957.

Egypt normally observed daylight saving time between the last Friday in April and the last Thursday in September when the clocks were three hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+3). The change occurred one second after 23:59:59 on Thursday to become 1:00:00 on the last Friday in April shortening the day to 23 hours. Summer time ended one second after 23:59:59 to become 23:00:00 on the last Thursday of September lengthening the day to 25 hours. The date did not change one second after the first 23:59:59 occurred; for all practical purposes, midnight did not occur until after the second 23:59:59. An exception was made for Ramadan; in 2006 the end of DST took place one week earlier, on 21 September 2006, which took place before the start of the holy month of Ramadan. The same practice recurred in 2007 and 2008, to avoid having longer days in Ramadan. In 2009, summer time ended on Thursday, 20 August, five weeks before the nominal end on the last Thursday in September. In 2010, the summer time started on 30 April and ended on 30 September, but between 10 August and 10 September summer time was cancelled because of Ramadan. The previous government was planning to take a decision to abolish it in 2011 before the January 25 Revolution. The transitional government abolished daylight saving time on 20 April 2011. [1] On May 7, 2014, the Egyptian government restored daylight saving time starting on 16 May with an exception for the holy month of Ramadan. [2]

From 2015 onwards, Egypt no longer observes it. [3] On April 29, 2016, the Egyptian government made plans to restore daylight saving time starting on July 7, 2016, during Eid al-Fitr, however later on July 4, 2016, the Egyptian government cancelled these plans to re-introduce DST.

In March 2023, the Egyptian government announced it would be restoring DST, starting on last Friday of April and ending on the last Thursday of October.

Libya

Libya observed DST each year from 1982 to 1989, [4] 1997, [5] and 2013. [6]

Morocco

As of 2019, daylight saving time (DST) is no longer observed in Morocco, advancing to UTC+01:00 permanently since 2019.

Namibia

At Independence of Namibia the country inherited the time regulations of South Africa and was in time zone UTC+02:00 all year round. Triggered by fears for school children walking to school before sunrise, Namibian Standard Time, a type of winter time, was introduced in 1993. [7]

From 1994 until 2017 Namibia used Winter time, the practice of setting clocks back during winter months by one hour. In this period Namibian Standard Time was at UTC+02:00 Central Africa Time in summer, and UTC+01:00 (West Africa Time) in winter. Winter time began on the first Sunday in April at 03:00, and lasted until the first Sunday in September, 02:00 hours. In the Zambezi Region in the far north-east of Namibia clocks were not changed and remained on Central Africa Time all year round so that during winter time, Namibia spanned two time zones. [8]

In the 2010s repeated calls from businesses and private individuals were made to abolish winter time, citing incompatibilities with South Africa, Namibia's main trading partner, as well as a "loss of productivity". [8] The National Council passed the Namibian Time Bill 2017 in August 2017 and repealed the 1993 act, [9] placing Namibia back into the South African Standard Time zone of UTC+02:00.

Tunisia

Tunisia adopted daylight saving time for the first time in 2005 starting 1 May 2005 and following EU time schedules thereafter. This comes as a move by the government to promote saving of energy. In 2009 the government of Tunisia canceled DST and kept the standard time all year round.

African countries not using DST

These countries or regions do not use daylight saving time, although some have in the past:

  1. Flag of Algeria.svg  Algeria (Observed DST before 1981)
  2. Flag of Angola.svg  Angola
  3. Flag of Benin.svg  Benin
  4. Flag of Botswana.svg  Botswana
  5. Flag of Burkina Faso.svg  Burkina Faso
  6. Flag of Burundi.svg  Burundi
  7. Flag of Cameroon.svg  Cameroon
  8. Flag of Cape Verde.svg  Cape Verde
  9. Flag of the Central African Republic.svg  Central African Republic
  10. Flag of Chad.svg  Chad (Observed DST in 1979-80)
  11. Flag of the Comoros.svg  Comoros
  12. Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.svg  Democratic Republic of the Congo
  13. Flag of the Republic of the Congo.svg  Republic of the Congo
  14. Flag of Cote d'Ivoire.svg  Côte d'Ivoire
  15. Flag of Djibouti.svg  Djibouti
  16. Flag of Equatorial Guinea.svg  Equatorial Guinea
  17. Flag of Eritrea.svg  Eritrea
  18. Flag of Eswatini.svg  Eswatini (Swaziland)
  19. Flag of Ethiopia.svg  Ethiopia
  20. Flag of Gabon.svg  Gabon
  21. Flag of The Gambia.svg  Gambia
  22. Flag of Ghana.svg  Ghana
  23. Flag of Guinea.svg  Guinea
  24. Flag of Guinea-Bissau.svg  Guinea-Bissau
  25. Flag of Kenya.svg  Kenya
  26. Flag of Lesotho.svg  Lesotho
  27. Flag of Liberia.svg  Liberia
  28. Flag of Libya.svg  Libya
  29. Flag of Madagascar.svg  Madagascar
  30. Flag of Malawi.svg  Malawi
  31. Flag of Mali.svg  Mali
  32. Flag of Mauritania.svg  Mauritania
  33. Flag of Mauritius.svg  Mauritius
  34. Flag of France.svg  Mayotte
  35. Flag of Morocco.svg  Morocco
  36. Flag of Mozambique.svg  Mozambique
  37. Flag of Namibia.svg  Namibia
  38. Flag of Niger.svg  Niger
  39. Flag of Nigeria.svg  Nigeria
  40. Flag of Rwanda.svg  Rwanda
  41. Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
  42. Flag of Sao Tome and Principe.svg  São Tomé and Príncipe
  43. Flag of Senegal.svg  Senegal
  44. Flag of Seychelles.svg  Seychelles
  45. Flag of Sierra Leone.svg  Sierra Leone
  46. Flag of Somalia.svg  Somalia
  47. Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa (Observed DST in 1942-1944)
  48. Flag of South Sudan.svg  South Sudan
  49. Flag of Sudan.svg  Sudan
  50. Flag of Tanzania.svg  Tanzania
  51. Flag of Togo.svg  Togo
  52. Flag of Tunisia.svg  Tunisia
  53. Flag of Uganda.svg  Uganda
  54. Flag of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.svg  Western Sahara
  55. Flag of Zambia.svg  Zambia
  56. Flag of Zimbabwe.svg  Zimbabwe

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Summer time in Europe</span> Variation of standard clock time

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central European Summer Time</span> Daylight savings time in the central European time zone

Central European Summer Time, sometimes referred to as Central European Daylight Time (CEDT),is the standard clock time observed during the period of summer daylight-saving in those European countries which observe Central European Time during the other part of the year. It corresponds to UTC+02:00, which makes it the same as Eastern European Time, Central Africa Time, South African Standard Time, Egypt Standard Time and Kaliningrad Time in Russia.

Time in New Zealand is divided by law into two standard time zones. The main islands use New Zealand Standard Time (NZST), 12 hours in advance of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) / military M (Mike), while the outlying Chatham Islands use Chatham Standard Time (CHAST), 12 hours 45 minutes in advance of UTC / military M^ (Mike-Three).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moscow Time</span> Time zone in western Russia (UTC+3)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Egypt Standard Time</span> Time zone

Egypt Standard Time (EGY) is UTC+02:00, which is equivalent to Eastern European Time, Central Africa Time, South African Standard Time and Central European Summer Time, and is co-linear with neighbouring Libya and Sudan. Egypt has used Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+03:00), during the summer periods from 1957 to 2010, 2014, 2015, and 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Africa Time</span> Time zone

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References

  1. "Egypt to cancel daylight saving time".
  2. "Daylight saving to be applied in Egypt starting Friday".
  3. "Egypt: No DST in 2015 After All".
  4. Daylight saving time dates for Libya - Tripoli between 1980 and 1989, Time and Date.
  5. Daylight saving time dates for Libya - Tripoli between 1900 and 1909, Time and Date.
  6. Libya Changes Time Zone, Time and Date, November 10, 2012.
  7. Dierks, Klaus. "Chronology of Namibian History, 136". klausdierks.com. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  8. 1 2 "GRN evaluates winter time change". New Era . 24 March 2016. p. 1.[ permanent dead link ]
  9. Nakale, Albertina (9 August 2017). "National Council passes Time Bill in favour of summer time". New Era . p. 1. Archived from the original on 20 July 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2018.