Local ISP and hosting provider, WebAfrica, has a killer deal on at the moment. For just R2 – yes, two hundred South African cents – you can score yourself two months of web hosting using the company’s virtual hosting services.

To promote its Virtual Private Servers (VPS), WebAfrica will charge new signups only R1 per month, for the first two months of their hosting. These prices are valid for the Premium and Premium Plus hosting packages, which usually cost R79 and R199 a month, respectively. From the third month, onwards, those prices will be applicable.

The servers are available with either Linux or Windows, so depending on the kind of web development you want to do you’ll be covered.

But the real bargain here isn’t the great virtual server on offer. Sure, the Premium package has 5GB of disk space, unlimited transfer, and a free Google Adwords voucher, to help your site get a head start on the big open web. No, the best part of the deal is a free domain.

We phoned and spoke to a WebAfrica sales representative who confirmed that the domain would be registered for a year. Essentially, this means that you can register any .co.za domain of your choosing – assuming it’s available – for the pauperly sum of just R2. Given that a .co.za domain usually goes for R75, this is a decent bargain. You’re also not obliged to keep your domain registration with WebAfrica, or use it with the company’s services.

As for the hosting itself… Since it’s a VPS you can use it for the usual array of hosting services, but it’s also a great way to teach yourself a bit more about the Linux shell environment without the risk and hassle associated with installing Linux on your own machine.