A descriptive study describing data management systems during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. SARS-CoV-2 testing was performed using rRT-PCR by a network of public and private laboratories. A centralised SARS-CoV-2 national laboratory-based surveillance system was established for reporting daily and weekly statistics. Initially, a manual Excel-based data management system was used, with migration in August 2020 to a semi-automated web-based system, developed from the existing Notifiable Medical Conditions Surveillance System (NMCSS) platform. The NMCSS received data daily through the existing public laboratory information system (LAB-TRAKCARE), Surveillance Data Warehouse and private laboratories. 