South Africa's telecoms regulator ICASA has published draft amendments to its numbering plan regulations for public comment. Under the draft, operators would have to verify the identity of a subscriber by biometric check against Department of Home Affairs records "on activation or re-activation of a mobile number on its network". Fingerprint or face checks would therefore apply to new SIMs, SIM swaps and existing subscribers, who would get two years to be verified.
The draft also caps the number of mobile numbers an operator may assign to one subscriber at five. Companies are exempt from the biometric checks but not from the cap. Foreign nationals on short or long stays would get numbers that stay active only as long as their visa is valid, or for 90 days.
Icasa's explanatory memorandum says most operators already run biometric verification, but only for post-paid offerings. Prepaid SIMs are the main hurdle, as the industry sells them in very large volumes. The draft was published in the Government Gazette on Wednesday 28 October 2026. The operators' industry body has said it will not back the draft in its current form.
For buyers and sellers of phone numbers, the proposal matters because it would tighten how physical SIM numbers are issued and transferred in South Africa. It is a draft and has not been adopted.
Sources: TechCentral – Icasa wants your fingerprint before you can get a Sim card; News24 – Icasa punts new biometric rule for SIM cards; EWN – Icasa wants to introduce biometric verification to fight SIM card fraud; TechCity – ICASA SIM rules: biometric checks and a 5 number limit