Identity verification
built for South Africa 
Smart ID Card, ID Book and Passport on one session, cross-checked against the Department of Home Affairs — $0.33 full KYC, 500 free every month.
Trusted by 2,000+ organizations worldwide.
How identity verification works in South Africa.
- Fraud landscape
- Three pressures shape South African identity fraud: deepfake and synthetic-ID attacks targeting the surge of digital banks and remittance apps, ID Book forgery (still legally valid alongside the Smart ID Card), and AML pressure following South Africa's FATF grey-listing in 2023. Didit scores 200+ real-time fraud signals on every session — face morph, replay, injection, document tampering, device intelligence, IP geolocation.
- Compliance frameworks
- FICA (Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001)
- POPIA (Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013)
- FSCA CASP Declaration (2022)
- South African Reserve Bank prudential standards
- FATF 40 recommendations
Who supervises identity verification in South Africa.
SARB
South African Reserve Bank — central bank and prudential supervisor for banks, payment service providers, and the National Payment System.
FSCA
Financial Sector Conduct Authority — market-conduct supervisor for banks, insurers, securities firms, and crypto asset service providers (CASPs) declared financial products in 2022.
FIC
Financial Intelligence Centre — South Africa's Financial Intelligence Unit. Administers FICA and receives Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs).
Information Regulator
Independent body that enforces POPIA (Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013). Governs every identity verification on South African residents.
DHA
Department of Home Affairs — issuer of the Smart ID Card, ID Book, and Passport. Maintains the authoritative national population register.
Four modules. One verification.
Capture and read the ID.
Captured on any phone — auto-classified, OCR-parsed, and template-verified.
- Smart ID Card, the legacy green-barcoded ID Book, Passport (with the chip read on e-Passports), and the driving licence.
- Returns the name, 13-digit ID number, date of birth, place of issue, and expiry.
- Smart ID Card
- ID Book (Green Barcoded)
- Passport — chip read on e-Passport
Match the face. Prove it's a real person..
Selfie confirmed live and matched against the ID portrait.
- Duplicate check: 1:N face search across existing users. Free.
- Active liveness ($0.15) for elevated-risk flows — user turns or blinks.
- Selfie on any phone or laptop camera
- Mobile-handoff QR when the user starts on desktop
Screen for sanctions, PEPs, and adverse media.
1,300+ global sanctions, PEP, and adverse-media lists — plus South African watchlists:
- FIC (Financial Intelligence Centre) — South Africa Sanctions — FIC-administered sanctions and STR-derived enforcement actions under FICA.
- SARB Prudential Authority — Administrative Sanctions — Reserve Bank prudential enforcement against regulated financial institutions.
- South Africa National Treasury — watchlist — Treasury-level financial designations.
- FSCA — debarment and enforcement register — Financial Sector Conduct Authority debarments and market-conduct enforcement.
- National Assembly of South Africa — PEP register — Members of Parliament at PEP Level 1.
- National Council of Provinces — PEP register — provincial legislative-level PEPs.
- NPA (National Prosecuting Authority) — prosecutorial enforcement and wanted-persons — court-ordered designations and fugitives.
- SAPS (South African Police Service) — wanted persons — active criminal and fugitive notices.
Severity-scored. Ongoing monitoring ($0.07/user/yr) re-checks daily and fires a webhook on new hits.
Screen for sanctions, PEPs, and adverse media — see the docs for the full module surface.
Cross-check against the Department of Home Affairs.
After the ID is captured, Didit cross-checks captured data against 14 South African authoritative-source services — covering identity, biometrics, driving, vehicles, company, and fraud:
- `zaf_africa_national_id` — DHA National ID registry. ~100% adult coverage. $2.95 per query.
- `zaf_dha_photo` — DHA registered photograph retrieval. $0.40 per query.
- `zaf_dha_fingerprint_match` — DHA fingerprint register. $0.50 per query.
- `zaf_drivers_license` — NATIS / Department of Transport driving-licence register. $0.20 per query.
- `zaf_fraud_prevention` — South African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) watch-list. $0.40 per query.
- `zaf_contactability` — known phone numbers, emails, and addresses for an individual. $0.30 per query.
- `zaf_bank_account_holder` — inter-bank Account Holder Verification (AVS) service. $0.40 per query.
- `zaf_company_registry` — CIPC commercial register company lookup. $0.30 per query.
- `zaf_company_directors` — CIPC current directors of a company. $0.30 per query.
- `zaf_person_directorships` — CIPC current and historical directorships for an individual. $0.30 per query.
- `zaf_criminal_face_screening` — facial image screen against South African criminal-record datasets. $0.50 per query.
- `zaf_refugee` — DHA refugee-file register. $0.30 per query.
- `zaf_vehicle_by_vin` — NATIS vehicle register lookup by VIN. $0.20 per query.
- `zaf_vehicle_ownership` — NATIS vehicle-ownership confirmation. $0.20 per query.
All services are pay-per-success, no contracts.
Cross-check against the Department of Home Affairs — see the docs for the full module surface.
Every South Africa document Didit accepts.
Civil-registry and AML coverage for South Africa.
South Africa National ID (DHA)
Source: Department of Home Affairs (DHA). $2.95 per successful query. Coverage ~100% of adult population.
South Africa DHA Photo Retrieval
Source: Department of Home Affairs (DHA). $0.40 per successful query. Coverage Registered DHA ID holders.
South Africa DHA Fingerprint Match
Source: Department of Home Affairs (DHA). $0.50 per successful query. Coverage DHA fingerprint register.
South Africa Driving License Verification
Source: NATIS / Department of Transport. $0.20 per successful query. Coverage NATIS driving-licence register.
South Africa Fraud Prevention Screening (SAFPS)
Source: South African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS). $0.40 per successful query. Coverage SAFPS watch-list.
South Africa Contactability Lookup
Source: South African contactability data aggregators. $0.30 per successful query. Coverage South African adult population.
South Africa Bank Account Holder Verification
Source: Inter-bank Account Holder Verification (AVS). $0.40 per successful query. Coverage South African bank accounts.
South Africa Company Registry Lookup
Source: CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission). $0.30 per successful query. Coverage CIPC commercial register.
South Africa Company Directors Lookup
Source: CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission). $0.30 per successful query. Coverage CIPC commercial register.
South Africa Person Directorships Lookup
Source: CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission). $0.30 per successful query. Coverage CIPC current and historical directorships.
South Africa Criminal Screening by Face
Source: South African criminal-record datasets. $0.50 per successful query. Coverage Published South African criminal-record datasets.
South Africa Refugee File Verification
Source: Department of Home Affairs (DHA) refugee register. $0.30 per successful query. Coverage DHA refugee register.
South Africa Vehicle Lookup by VIN
Source: NATIS vehicle register. $0.20 per successful query. Coverage NATIS vehicle register.
South Africa Vehicle Ownership Verification
Source: NATIS vehicle register. $0.20 per successful query. Coverage NATIS vehicle register.
AML lists screened in South Africa
1,300+ sanctions, Politically Exposed Persons (PEP), and adverse-media lists, plus the country's regulatory watchlists and PEP registries.
Open a new country in one click. We do the hard work.
Common questions about South Africa.
Infrastructure for identity and fraud.
One API for KYC, KYB, Transaction Monitoring, and Wallet Screening. Integrate in 5 minutes.