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Endemic to South Africa, from the Western Cape eastwards to the northern part of the Eastern Cape and southeastern Free State (Bates et al. 2014). There are also two records in the Northern Cape at Swaarweersberg near Sutherland, and near Nieuwoudtsville north of the Cederberg (Bates 2011). This species may also occur in the low-lying grasslands of southwestern Lesotho, in areas adjacent to the Free State localities (see Bates 1996), although there is virtually no natural habitat left there (Jonas et al. 2006, Rouget et al. 2006). I the Western Cape Province, there are records as far south as Renosterkop at Cape Agulhas. It is now evident that Tetradactylus tetradactylus is widely distributed and that many of the gaps between localities are probably artefacts from lack of data.
Although Tetradactylus tetradactylus is apparently common in the Western Cape and occurs in a number of protected areas, the large-scale destruction of fynbos habitat in this region is of concern (see Le Roux 2002, Jonas et al. 2006, Rouget et al. 2006) so improved information of the species occurrence in this area would be useful. In the Eastern Cape and southeastern Free State, part of the range falls in crop-growing areas. If T. bilineatus is re-instated it will require a separate conservation assessment.