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 it 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 the process of setting up your account.

Restriction	Description
DND exists	Yes
Time restrictions	Yes Direct marketing messages may not be sent between 8 PM – 8 AM GMT+2
International vs. local split	Yes - only for Vodacom numbers.
Local traffic	See below for international brand considerations.
International traffic	Vodacom requires that traffic sent on behalf of identified international brands (see table below) must be sent over a special international bind/number with increased pricing, or else traffic can be blocked. Our team can assist with setting up a local and an international profile to accommodate both scenarios.
General content restrictions	Content that is offensive, immoral, violent, degrading, induces fear, incites the use of harmful substances, or promotes racism, is not allowed Adult content is not allowed It is best practice to obtain end-user consent before sending any communication from your service. Unsolicited messages will not be sent to end-users
Content registration required	No
Opt-out instructions required	Yes End-users must be able to withdraw or cancel their consent at any time. You must be able to receive messages in order to process the “STOP” keyword required for users to opt out of your messaging
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 Vodacom as international traffic only (effective 1 March 2024)

Airbnb	Microsoft	TikTok
Amazon	Salesforce	Twitter
Apple	Samsung	Uber
Facebook	Signal	Viber
Google	Snapchat	WhatsApp
Instagram	Telegram
Air France	Bet365	Booking.com
British Airways	Citibank	Discord
DisneyPlus	eBay	Emirates Airline
Epic Games	Etihad Airways	IBM
JP Morgan	LinkedIn	Lufthansa
Mastercard	Mauritius Air	MiChat
Nintendo	OnlyFans	PayPal
Qatar Airlines	Salesforce	SAP
Saudi Airlines	Spotify	Truecaller
Turkish Airways	Visa	WeChat