Background Data on the burden of mumps in South Africa are limited and the epidemiology of mumps in this setting is not well understood. We present findings of analysis of mumps data in South Africa from 2012 to 2017. Methods This cross-sectional study included secondary data on laboratory-confirmed mumps infections from 2012 to 2017, archived at the South African National Health Laboratory Services’ data repository as well as from four private laboratories. Mumps-specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) and/or viral nucleic acid positive results represented acute infections. We used age-specific mid-year population estimates for each study year as denominators when calculating annual incidence. We calculated seasonality indices to determine seasonality of mumps infections. Results Out of 48580 records obtained from the public and private sectors, 46713 (96.2%) were from the private sector. Over the study period, there were 7494 acute infections, 7085 (94.5%) of which were recorded in the private sector. Of these 7494 infections, 3924 (52.4%) occurred in males. The proportion of samples tested that were IgM positive was 18.6% (1058/5682) in 2012, 15% (1016/6790) in 2013, 15.8% (1280/8093) in 2014, 15.5% (1384/8944) in 2015, 13.1% (1260/9629) in 2016 and 15.8% (1496/9442) in 2017. The cumulative incidence rate per 100000 was highest in children between one and nine years throughout the study period. Infections tended to peak in the October-November months, which represents spring in our setting. Most infections occurred in Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal and this was consistent throughout the study period. Conclusion Mumps infections predominantly occurred in spring, affecting children below 10 years of age and individuals who were male. There were fewer tests performed in the public sector compared to the private sector. Since only laboratory data was analysed our results represent and underestimate of disease burden. Further studies that include clinical data are required to provide better estimates of disease burden in South Africa.