Serving international removals, relocation and shipping from the UK to South Africa. Internasionale verhuising na Suid-Afrika.
This is a sea freight route and nothing else. Household goods leave a UK port in a container, spend weeks at sea, clear SARS at Durban or Cape Town, then travel by road. Air freight exists for a few boxes and is priced accordingly. Everything else goes by ship.
Containers for South Africa load out of Southampton, Felixstowe and Tilbury depending on the carrier, and the sailing schedule rather than your calendar sets the departure. That is the part people find hardest. You can choose almost everything about a move except the date the vessel leaves.
What you can control is the paperwork. The SARS entry needs form DA 304 with form P1.160 and a specified inventory, and an incomplete file holds a container at the quay while demurrage accrues. Get the documents finished before the goods are collected, not while they are at sea.
International Removals Companies is a free enquiry matching service operated by DATACONTEXT (UK) LTD, company 07425576. It is not an international moving company and carries out no removals itself. One enquiry reaches a single vetted mover already working this route.
A survey comes first, at your house or by video, and it produces the volume figure everything else is priced from. An estimate given over the phone without one is a guess dressed as a quote.
Export packing follows, usually one to three days depending on the size of the property. The crew produces the inventory as they go, because that document is what SARS reads at the other end, and it needs to be accurate rather than approximate.
Loading is either at your door into a container, or into a vehicle that takes the goods to a depot for consolidation. Which one depends on whether you have taken a container to yourself or booked space in a shared one.
Published transit ranges for this route sit at roughly three to six weeks for a sole use container and six to ten weeks for shared, with air freight at one to two weeks. Those figures are quoted consistently across UK movers running the route. Treat them as indicative industry ranges rather than a commitment, because port congestion and customs queues sit outside anyone's control.
Add clearance time on arrival and the inland road leg if you are going to Gauteng, the Free State or the Lowveld. A Johannesburg delivery is roughly six hundred kilometres past the port. That is a day of driving nobody counts until it happens.
Durban takes most of the traffic and is the busiest container port in Africa. It serves KwaZulu-Natal directly and everything inland by road. Cape Town covers the Western Cape and the Winelands. Gqeberha, which most UK paperwork still calls Port Elizabeth, and neighbouring Ngqura cover the Eastern Cape and the eastern Garden Route.
You rarely choose. The sailing decides, and the port then decides the road leg and part of the cost.
Send your UK collection address, the South African delivery address with any access notes, and a rough inventory. One vetted network firm already running this route contacts you, surveys the move and confirms the quote. Free, with no obligation.
Get your free South Africa removals quoteHousehold effects arriving on a permanent change of residence qualify for relief from duty and VAT under rebate item 407.06 of Schedule No 4 to the Customs and Excise Act. VAT stands at 15 per cent. Motor vehicles, alcoholic drinks and tobacco are excluded and fall outside the rebate entirely.
The entry is supported by form DA 304 with form P1.160 and a specified inventory. Returning South African residents must show at least six months abroad for reasons other than touring or studying. Nothing brought in under the rebate may be sold or disposed of within six months of clearance without the duty falling due.
Source: SARS Schedule No 4 to the Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964, published version dated 12 June 2026. Confirm current requirements at sars.gov.za before shipping.
Network firms hold FIDI FAIM certification, audited by Ernst & Young against more than two hundred criteria. Alongside it sit BAR Overseas, IAM, EUROMOVERS and FEDEMAC memberships. We are a Working Member of AGM Group.
Currency exchange comes with the service through our partners: experts in currency exchange, no hidden fees, five star consumer ratings and competitive exchange rates. Rand transfers usually need arranging before completion.
Published ranges across UK movers running this route sit at about three to six weeks for a sole use container and six to ten weeks for a shared one, with air freight at one to two weeks. Those are indicative industry figures rather than a promise. Customs clearance is added on arrival, and an inland delivery to Gauteng or the Free State adds a further day or more of road.
Southampton, Felixstowe and Tilbury are the usual departure points, and which one applies depends on the carrier your mover books rather than on where you live. Your goods are collected from your address wherever you are in the UK and taken either to the port or to a depot where loads bound for the same place are combined. The port of departure is not usually something you get to choose.
Form DA 304 for household effects on permanent change of residence, form P1.160 alongside it, and a specified inventory of the container contents. Returning South African residents also need evidence of at least six months abroad for reasons other than touring or studying. Complete these before collection. An incomplete file holds a container at the quay and storage charges start.
Yes, and for small volumes it is often the sensible answer. Shared container space is priced on what you use, and for a very small load air freight can work out competitive once you account for the shorter wait. A survey will tell you which is better for your inventory. Movers on this route quote both rather than pushing you towards one.
Volume drives it, then whether you take a container to yourself or share one, then access at both addresses, then how far inland the delivery goes. We do not publish a figure, because a number produced before anyone has seen your inventory is a guess. The moving company matched to your enquiry confirms the cost after a survey.
DATACONTEXT (UK) LTD, company 07425576, ICO ZB022743. Norman House, Saint Saviours Estate, Abbey Street, London, SE1 3DH. Founded November 2010. Working Member of AGM Group since 2010.
International Removals Companies is a free enquiry matching service and does not carry out removals. Each enquiry is connected with one vetted network firm. Certification is FIDI FAIM, audited by Ernst & Young against more than two hundred criteria, alongside BAR Overseas, IAM, EUROMOVERS and FEDEMAC.
Reviewed by Darren Benjamin, Founder, International Removals Companies. Customs and registration rules change. Confirm current requirements with SARS before you ship.