The Africa Service Medal was awarded to members of the Union Defence Forces, the South African Police and the South African Railways Police.

To qualify for the medal, a member of those services must have volunteered for war service outside South Africa and must have served, either at home or abroad, between South Africa's declaration of war on 6 September 1939 and 2 September 1945 inclusive, continuously for 30 days or part-time for at least 18 hours in non continuous training. As the name indicates, the medal was originally intended for service in Africa, up to the defeat of the Axis forces in North Africa in 1943, but it was later extended to cover service anywhere in the world, up to the end of the war in the Pacific on 2 September 1945.