There is no fixed rate for babysitting in South Africa, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing. We are not going to invent a figure either: what a Johannesburg family pays depends on how many children, how late it runs, how far the sitter has to travel, and how much experience they bring.
On MySitter every sitter sets their own rates — an hourly rate, a daily rate, or both — and whichever they have set is shown on their profile, so you know the number before you send a request rather than negotiating after. Search results show an hourly rate where a sitter has one, so if you are looking at a sitter who works on a day rate, open their profile to see it.
What moves the rate
More children costs more, and rightly so — two under five is not one under five with a spare.
Late finishes cost more. A sitter travelling home after midnight is taking on cost and risk you are not.
Experience costs more. Someone who has done this for ten years and has reviews to show for it will charge above someone starting out, and is usually worth it.
Special needs, medication, or a child who does not settle easily are all reasonable grounds for a higher rate. Say so up front.
When a sitter has set both an hourly and a daily rate, MySitter works the booking out both ways and charges whichever comes to less, so a long day never costs more than the day rate. Part hours and part days round up. Anything beyond the standard job — a fourth child, a much later finish than you first said — is worth agreeing with the sitter directly rather than assuming the platform will work it out.
What Johannesburg adds
Johannesburg is a driving city and its suburbs are a long way apart. A sitter crossing town for a three-hour booking can spend as long on the road as in your house, and none of that time is paid. It is why the same sitter may be worth more to the family two streets away than to you, and why a nearby sitter is often the better deal for both of you. A search runs from a location you choose and shows how far away each sitter is, so you can weigh that before you send a request.
The journey home is the part families forget. Public transport here thins out long before a Saturday night ends, and a sitter without their own car is relying on an e-hailing app late at night. Settle before you book who is paying for that trip, or offer to drive them yourself. A sitter who has to fund the ride home out of the fee is effectively working for less than the rate says.
Load-shedding turns a quiet evening into a different job: no lights, no wi-fi, no oven, gate and alarm running on backup, and children who cannot be parked in front of a screen. If a block is scheduled over your booking, say so when you send the request, and show your sitter where the torches are and how to open the gate by hand. A sitter who takes that in their stride has earned whatever they charge.
If you live behind a boom or in an estate or complex, register your sitter with security before the day. Nothing starts an evening worse than a phone call from a gate your sitter cannot get through.
Agreeing it without awkwardness
Book at the listed rate. It is the sitter's own number, they have already decided it is fair, and paying it without haggling is the fastest way to become someone's preferred family.
If your evening runs long, pay for the extra time. MySitter does not adjust the total after the fact, so that part is between the two of you — and sitters talk to each other, and reviews go both ways.