List of rivers of South Africa explained

This is a list of rivers in South Africa.

It is quite common to find the Afrikaans word -rivier as part of the name. Another common suffix is "-kamma", from the Khoisan term for "river"^[1] (often tautologically the English term "river" is added to the name). The Zulu word amanzi (water) also forms part of some river names.

The Afrikaans term spruit (compare spring) often labels small rivers.

List

River	Drainage basin	Province and location	Source location (town / mountains)	Tributary of (river)	Dam in river	Mouth / junction at location (town)	Mouth / junction coordinates
						Umpambanyoni River	-30.2583°N 30.75°W
							-30.2583°N 30.7333°W
Amanzimtoti River, (Manzimtoti River) (Toti River)	U7						-30.05°N 82°W
	A2	Gauteng, Tshwane, Pretoria					-25.24°N 28.1433°W
As River (or Axel River)	C8						-28.2242°N 28.3661°W
	W5			Mkondo River		Swaziland border	-27.0794°N 31.0386°W
	C2	North West					-27.6708°N 25.6278°W
	L8	Western and Eastern Cape		Kouga River			-33.6647°N 24.3936°W
	D1					Near Moshesh's Ford	-30.8522°N 27.7786°W
Berg River (or Great Berg River)	G1		Franschhoek Drakenstein			Velddrif north of Vredenburg, Atlantic Ocean	-32.7703°N 18.1444°W
	D3						-29.9953°N 24.78°W
	R5						-33.3833°N 27.3258°W
	W5			Pongola River
Blesbokspruit (or Blesbok Spruit)	C2
Blood River (or Ncome River)	V3
	V1		North of Giant's Castle in the Drakensberg foothills		none	near Tugela Estates, Weenen area	-28.7583°N 30.1486°W
	K	Western and Eastern Cape border		n.a.			-33.9789°N 23.6469°W
					none		-33.4106°N 26.6514°W
Blyde River (or Motlatse River)	B6					Lissataba game farm, Mica area	-24.2536°N 30.8306°W
						Uilkraalsmond (south of Gans Bay), Atlantic Ocean	-34.6058°N 19.4089°W
							-33.6922°N 26.6639°W
Boesmanspruit (or Boesman Spruit)
					Alphen Dam
	G					Fischerhaven, Atlantic Ocean	-34.3681°N 19.0981°W
Braamfontein Spruit (or Braamfonteinspruit)		Gauteng
	A7				Magkabeng Plateau		-22.6042°N 29.7333°W
Breede River (or Breë River)	H						-34.4042°N 20.8517°W
Bronkhorst Spruit (or Bronkhorstspruit)	B2
	R2	Eastern Cape				East London harbour	-33.0292°N 27.9158°W
	V3	KwaZulu-Natal
	F3	Northern Cape					-29.6764°N 17.0518°W
	J1	Western Cape					-33.4679°N 20.984°W
	V	KwaZulu-Natal
	D2	Free State border Lesotho and South Africa					-30.5167°N 26.0961°W
Chalumna River (or Tyolomnqa River)	R4	Eastern Cape
	X3	Mpumalanga
	A3	North West, Gauteng and Limpopo
	G	Western Cape				Table Bay Cape Town	-33.8908°N 18.3819°W
	A7	Limpopo
		Western Cape and Eastern Cape
							-34.3656°N 21.0003°W
	B2	Gauteng				Marble Hall	-24.9242°N 29.3458°W
	A	North West Province					-24.2883°N 27.5189°W
	X3	Mpumalanga
	J
	L9						-33.97°N 25.0342°W
Gouritz River (or Gourits River)							-34.3464°N 21.8856°W
Great Fish River (Groot-Vis River)							-33.4956°N 27.1358°W
Groenrivier (Green River)						About 120 km NNW of Strandfontein by Green River Mouth Lighthouse
Great Kei River (Groot-Kei)							-32.6792°N 28.3853°W
	B8
Great Usutu River (or Maputo River)	W5						-26.1728°N 32.6958°W
	K			Perdeberg River, Tweeriviere River and Varings River	Wolwedans Dam	Great Brak River, Indian Ocean
Groot Brak River				Teebusspruit
Groot Marico River (or Great Marico River)
Groot River		Eastern Cape	where the Kariega River and Sout River join	Gamtoos River	Beervlei Dam
			The Buffels River becomes the Groot River from where the Klein-Swartberg River joins the Buffels
	H
		North West
	W
	A7					Hout River Dam	-23.0672°N 29.5792°W
	C2
Jordaanspruit		Free State			Bloemhoek Dam
							-34.0053°N 24.9356°W
		Eastern Cape
					Katrivier Dam		-32.9956°N 26.7847°W
						Kenton-on-Sea
	R1		Amatola Mountains		Sandile Dam		-33.2833°N 56°W
		Eastern Cape		Swart-Kei River
		Eastern Cape, Tsitsikamma coast
	B8
		Mpumalanga
							-34.4214°N 19.3008°W
		Eastern Cape	North of Queenstown	Klaas Smits River	Bongolo Dam
Komati River (or Incomati, Nkomati)	X1
	L8
			Grahamstown				Port Alfred
	D1	Eastern Cape	Confluence of Bell River, Sterkspruit and Joggem River at Moshesh's Ford, Eastern Cape Drakensberg	Orange River			-30.6667°N 71°W
Liesbeek River (also spelt Liesbeeck)		Western Cape
Levubu River (or Luvuvhu, Pafuri River)	A9						-22.4256°N 31.3069°W
Lephalala River (see Palala River)	A5
	B8
	C8
	A	Limpopo, on Zimbabwe, Botswana borders	The Marico River and the Crocodile River become the Limpopo River
Little Brak River (or Klein Brak)		Eastern Cape					-34.0919°N 22.1486°W
Lovu River(Illovu)	U7	KwaZulu-Natal	West of Richmond				-30.1°N 81°W
		Western Cape
	M						-33.9872°N 25.2936°W[2]
		Limpopo Province	Olifants River (Limpopo)
Maputo River (or Great Usutu)
	A2
		Eastern Cape, Transkei region	East of Elliot				-32.2489°N 28.9°W
Mgobezeleni River
	B8
	W
	W
Mngeni River (or Mgeni, Umgeni)	U
	A6			Limpopo River
Mokolo River (or Mogol River)	A4			Limpopo
	D4
	V
	T	Eastern Cape
			Near Hamburg			Palm Beach	-30.9331°N 30.2667°W
Msunduzi River (or Duzi River)
		KwaZulu-Natal - Eastern Cape border
		Eastern Cape, Transkei region
Mzimkulu River (or Umzimkulu)
		Eastern Cape, Transkei region
	R3
							-26.9617°N 32.2942°W
	D4
	V4
	A8
Ohlanga River (or Umhlanga)
	B
Orange River (or Gariep River)							-29.5833°N 45°W
Palala River (or Lephalala)	A5
		Western Cape			Eikenhof Dam
	A2
Pongola River (or Phongolo)	W5
Riviersonderend (or Sonderend River)
			X3
	A			Limpopo River
	B2			Olifants River		Near Loskop Dam	-25.3708°N 29.395°W
Spoeg River						About 18 km SSE of Hondeklip Bay
		Mpumalanga
		North West
	C2					Vereeniging
	V1
	M1
		Eastern Cape, Nelson Mandela Bay				Bluewater Bay, Indian Ocean
						near Palmietfontein	-30.4049°N 27.5583°W
							-24.055°N 31.6775°W
	B6
	V
		Eastern Cape			Binfield Park Dam		-32.9139°N 26.9372°W
						Gans Bay, Atlantic Ocean	-34.6061°N 19.4092°W
Umfolozi River (Zulu: Zulu: Mfolozi)	W						-28.3978°N 32.4242°W
Black Umfolozi River (Zulu: Zulu: Mfolozi emnyama)
White Umfolozi River (Zulu: Zulu: Mfolozi emhlophe)
	B2	Mpumalanga
	C8	Free State			Vaal Dam
Umgeni River(uMngeni)	U2						-29.8°N 33°W
Umvoti River (or Mvoti River)	U
Umzimkulu River (Zulu: Zulu: Mzimkulu)
	C	Free State and other
						Elands Bay Atlantic Ocean	-32.315°N 18.3375°W
				Vaal River
Vier-en-twintig-riviere (English: 24 Rivers)
		Eastern Cape
	C8
		Mpumalanga

• A Drainage basin code assigned by the Department of Water Affairs (South Africa), a complete list is available at Drainage basins of South Africa

See also

• List of reservoirs and dams in South Africa
• Water Management Areas
• Estuaries in South Africa
• List of lakes in South Africa
• Lagoons of South Africa
• List of Bays of South Africa
• Drainage basins of South Africa

References

• Dep. of Water Affairs; Republic of South Africa

External links

• Hydrology
• Map where one can zoom into a drainage system
• GIS data and map of all rivers of South Africa
• FROC - Reference frequency of occurrence of fish species in South Africa

Notes and References

1. Meiring, Barbara. "South African Toponymic Guidelines for Map and other editors: Fourth Edition", 12. Retrieved on 30 April 2013.
2. Web site: Maitland River Mouth . Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism . 26 June 2019.