EarthCaches started rather slowly in South Africa, with the first (GCPX24) being placed at the Vredefort dome in July 2005 by Team Bjbez. After approaching the geological society of South Africa and using the Johannesburg centenary geological trail as a starting point, Carbon Hunter managed to increase the numbers dramatically, mainly in Gauteng, and soon others were popping up all over the place as more geocachers started placing EarthCaches around the country.
By late 2009 there were 100 in South Africa – and now they are reasonably common across all southern Africa countries. The appeal of placing an EarthCache is that once placed and approved there is very little, to almost no maintenance, required.
The EarthCache Masters awards program is also very popular – with many local geocachers qualifying for the top Platinum status. However, with the distinct lack of large numbers compared to Europe and the US in particular – there have been only a handful of local geocachers who have reached the “Mica” Discovery level of 100 EarthCache finds – and the “Garnet” level (250+ EarthCache finds) remains likely to only a small handful of local geocachers – lead by the inimitable team iPajero.
| Country | 2002 | 2004 | 2006 | 2008 | 2010 | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 |
| Angola | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 12 |
| Botswana | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 9 |
| Lesotho | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Malawi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Mozambique | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Namibia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 12 | 19 | 22 | 25 |
| South Africa | 0 | 0 | 3 | 41 | 141 | 171 | 257 | 361 |
| Swaziland | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Zimbabwe | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 14 |
As at August 2017 there are about 27 000 EarthCaches worldwide. There are approximately 380 EarthCaches in South Africa, and this gives local geocachers access to a little under 1½ % of the world's EarthCaches.
More info here about the EarthCache Masters program.
More info here about the EarthCache Discovery Awards (EDA)