Type M.
- Pins
- 3
- Spacing
- 31 mm
- Pin length
- 18.6 mm
- Rated
- 15 A
- Earthed
- yes
Drawn from pin dimensions at one scale across the whole site — hold a plug against the screen and it should look familiar.
South Africa's heavyweight, shared with Eswatini and Lesotho: the old British BS 546 15 A pattern that Britain itself retired. It reads as a scaled-up Type D — three stout round pins in a triangle, 7.1 mm line pins a full 25.4 mm apart under an 8.7 mm earth pin — and the extra metal is the point, carrying loads Type D's 5 A gauge cannot. India, Sri Lanka and Israel still wire it in for air conditioners and other big appliances alongside their everyday sockets.
What fits a Type M socket
Only its own plug — nothing else seats in a Type M socket. Nothing else fits: the wide spacing and thick pins exclude C, D and everything European. South Africa is meanwhile phasing in a Type N-style standard (SANS 164-2) beside it.
Facts verified against IEC World Plugs — Type M. Prose is our own.