Convert CST to SAST

SAST is 8 hours ahead of CST. CST is UTC−6 and SAST is UTC+2.

Which CST is this?

CST names more than one zone. This page reads it as Central Standard Time at UTC−6, which is the reading most converters take. There are others: China Standard Time at UTC+8, used in all of mainland China, all year; Cuba Standard Time at UTC−5, used in Cuba in winter.

The letters on a meeting invitation do not say which one is meant. If yours is not Central Standard Time, the answer above is wrong, and not by a little:

The large converter sites disagree about this as well: search for a CST conversion and some of the results answer for one reading and some for another, none of them saying which they chose. Where it matters, ask which country the sender is in rather than which letters they typed.

Best time to schedule a meeting

Standard 9–5 working hours do not overlap at all between CST and SAST. Someone has to take an early or late call — or use asynchronous communication instead.

CST to SAST conversion table

About CST

Central Standard Time (CST) is UTC−6. It is used in Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Mexico City in winter.

CST is the most overloaded abbreviation in timekeeping. It means US Central Standard Time at UTC−6, China Standard Time at UTC+8, and Cuba Standard Time at UTC−5 — a fourteen-hour spread between the first two. This page uses the North American meaning. If an abbreviation reached you without a country attached, that is a reason to ask rather than to assume, and it is the strongest single argument for storing an IANA zone name such as America/Chicago instead.

About SAST

South Africa Standard Time (SAST) is UTC+2. It is used in South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini.

South Africa Standard Time is UTC+2 with no daylight saving, unchanged since 1903 apart from two wartime years. The whole country keeps it, and so do Lesotho and Eswatini. Against the UK it is two hours ahead in winter and one in summer, which is the shift that catches London–Johannesburg standing calls every March and October.

Does this gap change with the seasons?

This gap is seasonal. The abbreviations themselves are fixed offsets, but the region on CST switches to CDT (UTC−5) from March to November. So the 8-hour figure on this page is correct for the part of the year when both places are actually on these abbreviations, and changes by an hour outside it.

SAST does not shift, so the whole change comes from one side. A recurring meeting fixed in SAST will appear to move by an hour for everyone on the other side, twice a year, without anyone changing anything.

This is the reason scheduling systems store an IANA zone such as Region/City rather than an offset or an abbreviation: the zone knows its own rules and the offset does not.

Frequently asked questions

Other CST conversions

• CST to UTC
• CST to GMT
• CST to EST
• CST to EDT
• CST to CDT
• CST to MST
• CST to PST
• CST to PDT
• CST to AKST
• CST to HST
• CST to BRT
• CST to BST
• CST to CET
• CST to CEST
• CST to EET
• CST to EEST

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