South Africa

Southern Africa · ZAR (R) · dial code +27 · English, Zulu, Afrikaans, Xhosa

Overview of IdentifyOrg in South Africa →

Local currency: ZAR
Phone numbers: +27821234567
National ID: South African ID number: coming

Available in South Africa

Nigeria only

These read Nigerian identity, banking and utility records, so they do not work for South Africa. Calling them for another country returns 403 not_available_in_country:

BVN verification
NIN verification
Driver's licence (FRSC)
Bank account name check
BVN to account match
CAC business registry check
Credit bureau score
Bills (airtime, data, electricity, TV)
Business payment gateway (collections)

Response, 403

{
  "error": {
    "code": "not_available_in_country",
    "message": "BVN verification is only available for Nigeria. ...",
    "status": 403
  }
}

Coming: South African ID number verification

A South Africa-specific identity check against the South African ID number (Department of Home Affairs) is planned. Until it launches, you can verify people in South Africa with document OCR, liveness and face match, which work with any passport, national ID or driver's licence photo.

Prices in ZAR

Prices for South Africa ·change

Your balance is held in naira. Prices below are converted at ₦80.9196 per ZAR, rounded up. Top-ups in ZAR are credited at the same rate.

Service	Price	Unit
Phone verification (SMS OTP)	R0.08	per code sent
SMS	R0.04	per message
Document OCR and verification	R0.62	per document
Liveness detection	R0.99	per check
Face match	R0.99	per check
Address verification	R1.90	per check
VAT number validation (live)	R16.60	per check
Video call	R0.04	per participant-minute
Voice call	R0.02	per participant-minute
Website audit	R3.75	per scan
AI text detection	R0.99	per check

Phone number format

South Africa mobile numbers are written locally as 082 123 4567 and internationally as +27821234567. The leading 0 is a national prefix: we drop it when we add +27, so local-format numbers work if you also send the country.

curl

curl -X POST https://api.identifyorg.com/v1/phone/verify/start \
  -H "X-IdentifyOrg-Key: io_live_xxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "phone": "+27821234567" }'

# The same number in local format needs the country:
curl -X POST https://api.identifyorg.com/v1/phone/verify/start \
  -H "X-IdentifyOrg-Key: io_live_xxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "phone": "0821234567", "country": "ZA" }'

Node.js

const res = await fetch("https://api.identifyorg.com/v1/phone/verify/start", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "X-IdentifyOrg-Key": process.env.IDENTIFYORG_KEY, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ phone: "0821234567", country: "ZA" }), // or phone: "+27821234567"
});
const { id } = await res.json(); // then POST /v1/phone/verify/check with { id, code }

Python

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.identifyorg.com/v1/phone/verify/start",
    headers={"X-IdentifyOrg-Key": os.environ["IDENTIFYORG_KEY"]},
    json={"phone": "+27821234567"},
)
verification_id = r.json()["id"]

Topping up your balance

Card payments in ZAR, converted to your naira balance at the rate shown when you pay. Provider availability is set per country, and cards in US dollars are the fallback where a local-currency option is not open yet.

Data protection

Personal data in South Africa is governed by the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). Phone verification stores only a salted hash of each code; check your own obligations as the data controller.