Is Caffeine legal in South Africa?

Legal status

Not named in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992, so it is not a drug or a scheduled substance under that Act.

Consequences if caught

Caffeine is a xanthine. Reading every entry of both schedules, there is no xanthine in either, and no purine alkaloid of any kind. That matters because the homologue limb reaches only chemically related substances, and there is nothing in the two schedules for a xanthine to be related to. The stimulants Part III does carry are phenethylamines, cathinones and one methylphenidate entry, none of which shares a ring system with this substance. Food law in South Africa does regulate caffeine content and labelling, and that legislation is not held in this repository and was not read for this cell. Capital exposure: none, and life exposure: none. Section 17 sets out the whole penalty scale of this Act and its highest figure is 25 years for dealing; no provision of the Act carries a death sentence or a sentence of life imprisonment.

If prescribed or medical

No prescription or permit under this Act arises, because the Act reaches only substances in its own schedules.

Documentation

Search record. The terms searched were caffeine, coffein, xanthine, theophylline and theobromine. All five return zero occurrences in the Act. The dossier answers this row from a foodstuffs statute that is not in the instrument set given to this lane, so its quotation is not repeated here. The text read for this cell is the Juta consolidation of the Act downloaded on 29 May 2025, taken from the Department of Justice copy at justice.gov.za whose sha256 begins bc1216a3. It carries the substitution of Schedules 1 and 2 by section 2 of Act 14 of 2022 with effect from 14 December 2022, and it marks section 7 of the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act 7 of 2024, the provision that would amend Schedule 2 again, as not yet put into operation by proclamation. The schedules are stated as at that consolidation and this does not rule out a later amendment made or commenced since. The Schedule and the Part named in this cell are read from the Act itself at the lines quoted; they are nowhere printed in the verbatim quotation supplied for this row.

Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with South Africa’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.