diff --git a/core/res/res/xml/sms_short_codes.xml b/core/res/res/xml/sms_short_codes.xml
index 37d059a575f08..69d2c74100e01 100644
--- a/core/res/res/xml/sms_short_codes.xml
+++ b/core/res/res/xml/sms_short_codes.xml
@@ -274,6 +274,6 @@
     <shortcode country="yt" pattern="\\d{1,5}" free="38600,36300,36303,959" />
 
     <!-- South Africa -->
-    <shortcode country="za" pattern="\d{1,5}" free="44136|30791|36056" />
+    <shortcode country="za" pattern="\\d{1,5}" free="44136|30791|36056" />
 
 </shortcodes>