Central Africa Time facts for kids
Central Africa Time (CAT) is a time zone used in many countries across central and southern Africa. It is also called South Africa Standard Time (SAST) in South Africa and some neighboring countries. This time zone is always two hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+2). Think of UTC as the main clock for the world.
CAT is the same time as Eastern European Time (EET) during their winter months. It's also the same as Central European Summer Time (CEST) when they are observing summer time.
What is Central Africa Time?
Central Africa Time (CAT) means that the clocks in these countries are set to UTC+2. This means if it's 12:00 PM (noon) UTC, then in a country using CAT, it would be 2:00 PM. This helps everyone in the same time zone know what time it is for daily activities like school or work.
Countries Using Central Africa Time
Many countries in Africa use Central Africa Time. Here is a list of them:
Botswana- Eastern parts of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo 
Burundi
Lesotho (uses South Africa Standard Time (SAST))
Malawi
Mozambique
Namibia (since September 2017)
South Africa (uses South Africa Standard Time (SAST))
Eswatini (formerly Swaziland, uses South Africa Standard Time (SAST))
Sudan (since November 2017)
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Why No Daylight Saving Time in CAT?
Countries that use Central Africa Time do not change their clocks for daylight saving time. Daylight saving time is when some places move their clocks forward by an hour in spring and back by an hour in autumn. This is often done to make better use of daylight during longer summer evenings.
However, countries near the equator (an imaginary line around the middle of the Earth) have very little change in the length of their days and nights throughout the year. The sun rises and sets at roughly the same time every day. Because of this, there is no real benefit to changing the clocks, so they keep their time constant all year round.
