Address data exchange in South Africa

Abstract

An address is one of the most common forms of describing a location with the purpose of providing directions for all kinds of ‘deliveries’, ranging from visitors, postal mail, utility services such as water, sewerage, electricity or telecommunication to household surveys and the opening of bank accounts. South Africa is often referred to as a ‘world in one country’ referring to the diversity in its natural environment, as well as its people and their cultures. This cultural diversity along with the multiple sources of address related data and the absence of a single mandated addressing authority is similar to an international situation of individual countries, each the source of its own socio-cultural specific addresses and no single addressing authority. In this paper we present South African addresses and the address types that are defined in the South African Address Standard (SANS 1883) and that allow for address data exchange of structured addresses in traditionally formalized areas, as well as descriptive addresses in rural and informal settlements typical to a developing country. We believe that some aspects of the South African address standard are of interest to the development of an international address standard and conclude with a discussion of the benefits that an international address standard would bring to a developing country like South Africa that has a substantial addressing backlog.