SMS Country regulations and restrictions
South Africa
Clickatell is a member of the Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association (WASPA) in South Africa and we’re bound by their code of conduct. WASPA was formed in 2004 as a self-regulatory body with a mandate to represent and regulate its voluntary members which provide mobile-based Value-Added Services (VAS), otherwise known as WASPs. For more information, you can view the WASPA code of conduct.
South African SMS messaging supports binary and Unicode, and there are various standard regulations in place regarding message content, shown in the table below. You can also visit the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa online for more information and guidance regarding these restrictions.
Before you start sending to South Africa, please take note of the complex and important messaging and content restrictions outlined by these regulatory bodies.
We’ll make it simple for you to set up a South Africa messaging program. Our Online Sales team has a solid understanding of the country’s messaging landscape, which means they can easily guide you through setting up your account.
| Restriction | Description |
| DND exists | Yes |
| Time restrictions | Yes
|
| International vs. local split | Yes - for Cell C, MTN, and Vodacom numbers. (MTN's regulations take effect December 2024/January 2025). |
| Local traffic | See below for international brand considerations. |
| International traffic | Cell C, MTN, and Vodacom require traffic sent on behalf of identified international brands (see table below) to be sent over a special international bind/number with increased pricing. Otherwise, traffic can be blocked, and penalties may be enforced. Our team can assist with setting up a local and international profile to accommodate both scenarios. |
| General content restrictions |
|
| Content registration required | No |
| Opt-out instructions required | Yes
|
| Sender ID regulations | All sender IDs will be overwritten with a local number. |
| Sender ID registration offered by Clickatell | Not supported |
| Sender ID documentation required | N/A |
| Country supports MNP | Yes |
Brands identified by Cell C, MTN, and Vodacom as international traffic only:
| Brands |
Vodacom (1 March 2024) |
Cell C (1 November 2024) |
MTN (early 2025) |
| Adobe | No | Yes | Yes |
| Air France | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Airbnb | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Alibaba | No | Yes | Yes |
| AliExpress | No | Yes | Yes |
| Alipay | No | Yes | Yes |
| Amazon | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Apple | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Aruba | No | Yes | Yes |
| Atlassian | No | Yes | Yes |
| Autodesk | No | Yes | Yes |
| Badoo | No | Yes | Yes |
| BambooHR | No | Yes | Yes |
| Bark | No | Yes | Yes |
| Bet365 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| BetFred | No | Yes | Yes |
| Betway International | No | No | Yes |
| Binance | No | Yes | Yes |
| Bolt | No | Yes | Yes |
| Booking.com | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| British Airways | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Buffalo | No | Yes | Yes |
| Bumble | No | Yes | Yes |
| Calendly | No | Yes | Yes |
| Cisco | No | Yes | Yes |
| Citibank | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Clearscore | No | Yes | Yes |
| CloudOTP | No | Yes | Yes |
| Coupa | No | Yes | Yes |
| Discord | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Disney Plus | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docusign | No | Yes | Yes |
| Dropbox | No | Yes | Yes |
| eBay | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Emirates Airline | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Epic Games | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Etihad Airways | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Etsy | No | Yes | Yes |
| Exness | No | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Fiverr | No | Yes | Yes |
| Fresha | No | Yes | Yes |
| Globicall | No | Yes | Yes |
| GoDaddy | No | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| GoogleAds | No | Yes | Yes |
| Herbalife | No | Yes | Yes |
| Hinge | No | Yes | Yes |
| Huawei | No | Yes | Yes |
| Hubspot | No | Yes | Yes |
| IBM | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| IMO | No | Yes | Yes |
| Inclave | No | Yes | Yes |
| Indeed | No | Yes | Yes |
| InDrive | No | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Intuit | No | Yes | Yes |
| JibeRCS | No | Yes | Yes |
| JP Morgan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Kormo | No | Yes | Yes |
| Lastpass | No | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Lufthansa | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Luno | No | Yes | Yes |
| Mailchimp | No | Yes | Yes |
| Mastercard | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mauritius Air | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MiChat | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mimecast | No | Yes | Yes |
| Morning Star | No | Yes | Yes |
| Netflix | No | Yes | Yes |
| Ninety | No | Yes | Yes |
| Nintendo | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| OKX | No | Yes | Yes |
| OnlyFans | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Outlier | No | Yes | Yes |
| Pavago | No | Yes | Yes |
| Payoneer | No | Yes | Yes |
| PayPal | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ping Identity | No | Yes | Yes |
| PlayStation | No | Yes | Yes |
| Plentyoffish | No | Yes | Yes |
| Qatar Airlines | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| No | Yes | Yes | |
| Regus | No | Yes | Yes |
| Sage | No | Yes | Yes |
| SailPoint | No | Yes | Yes |
| Salesforce | Yes | No | No |
| Samsung | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SAP | Yes | No | No |
| Saudi Airlines | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SendGrid | No | Yes | Yes |
| Shein | No | Yes | Yes |
| Shopify | No | Yes | Yes |
| Signal | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Skrill | No | Yes | Yes |
| Snapchat | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Snappic | No | Yes | Yes |
| Sony | No | Yes | Yes |
| Spotify | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Stripe | No | Yes | Yes |
| Techbit | No | Yes | Yes |
| Telegram | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| TelUS | No | Yes | Yes |
| Temu | No | Yes | Yes |
| TikTok | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tinder | No | Yes | Yes |
| TravelInfo | No | Yes | Yes |
| Truecaller | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| TuneCore | No | Yes | Yes |
| Turkish Airways | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Twilio | No | Yes | Yes |
| X (formerly Twitter) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Uber | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Verify | No | Yes | Yes |
| Viber | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Visa | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Walmart | No | Yes | Yes |
| Waze | No | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Wix | No | Yes | Yes |
| Worldremit | No | Yes | Yes |
| Yahoo | No | Yes | Yes |
| YouTube | No | Yes | Yes |
| 123-sms | No | Yes | Yes |
| Atlas Realty | No | Yes | Yes |
| Booking | No | Yes | Yes |
| EnvoyerSMS | No | Yes | Yes |
| Mixtelematics | No | Yes | Yes |
| Truesenses | No | Yes | Yes |
| Twitch | No | Yes | Yes |
| Williams Racing | No | Yes | No |
| Atlas Earth | No | Yes | No |
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