🇿🇦How to verify a supplier in South Africa
To verify a supplier in South Africa, look the company up in the official CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission) and confirm it is registered and currently active. The registry returns registered name, registration number, enterprise type, status, registration date and registered directors. The full disclosure certificate also lists the registered address and director history.
Sổ đăng ký chính thức
- Sổ đăng ký
- CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission)
- Mã số doanh nghiệp
- registration number, formatted YYYY/NNNNNN/NN (year of incorporation first)
- Chi phí
- Tra cứu trực tuyến
- Trạng thái đang hoạt động
- The status field must read "In Business". A company shown as "Deregistration process" or "Final deregistered" has stopped filing its annual returns and legally may not trade.
- The registry search itself is NOT free-and-open: CIPC eServices (and its newer BizPortal front, bizportal.gov.za) require creating an account, and the full disclosure certificate is a paid per-enquiry document. There is no free anonymous company search for South Africa, which is itself worth knowing: any site offering one is reselling CIPC data of unknown freshness.
- The one genuinely free, no-login official check is the SARS VAT Vendor Search (secure.sarsefiling.co.za/vatvendorsearch.aspx): enter the 10-digit VAT number (South African VAT numbers always start with 4) or the registered trading name, and SARS confirms whether the vendor is VAT-registered. The database is updated weekly. A manufacturer trading at any real scale is VAT-registered, so a name that returns nothing here deserves questions.
- Certifications: SANS product-safety marks (e.g. SANS 1828 for food-contact cleaners) are issued by certification bodies like SABS or SATAS, and the certificate number can be confirmed with the issuing body directly. Ask the supplier which body issued the mark and check the number with that body, not with a copy of the certificate.
Giấy phép xuất khẩu theo ngành
Being a registered, active company is not the same as being allowed to export a specific product. In South Africa, some goods need their own export licence or certificate from a named body. Each entry says which goods it covers and when it applies; an entry marked “scope not checked” names the body, but we have not yet checked its product scope and conditions against the legal text, so confirm with that body whether it applies to your goods.
- alcohol/winescope not checked
export licence from the South African Wine Industry Information and Systems.
Verify approval and consignment codes through the SAWIS online export certification platform.
Official source - rough diamondsscope not checked
Kimberley Process certificate from the South African Diamond and Precious Metals Regulator.
Validate certificate number and shipment details against the SADPMR export registry.
Official source
This is a factual pointer to public records, not legal advice, and the list is not exhaustive.
Before you sign: five asks no registry can answer
The register proves the company exists and who signs. It says nothing about whether the supplier survives a bad quarter, a fire or a key person leaving. Serious suppliers answer these five asks without friction; hesitation on any of them is information too.
- Business continuity: what happens to your order if their plant loses power, a strike hits or their systems go down? Ask for the plan, not a reassurance.
- Liability insurance: is product or professional liability insured, with which insurer and to what ceiling? A certificate of insurance is a one-page email for a real firm.
- Exit terms: how do you terminate if it goes wrong, what notice and fees apply, and how do you get your tooling, molds or data back?
- Support in numbers: ask for response and resolution times as figures, not adjectives. A supplier who commits to hours in writing has a support process; one who writes fast support does not.
- Named people: who exactly runs production and who owns your account? Continuity of a named team matters more than a polished sales deck, and employee-review sites often show whether that team stays.
General commercial hygiene, not legal advice.
Kiểm tra trong bốn bước
- 1
Open the CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission)
CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission) is the official government record of companies in South Africa. Basic name or number search is available online.
- 2
Search the exact legal name or ID
Search the supplier's registered name or its registration number, formatted YYYY/NNNNNN/NN (year of incorporation first). If the name does not match cleanly, treat it as a red flag, it may be a trade name, a different entity, or wrong.
- 3
Confirm it is active, not struck off
The status field must read "In Business". A company shown as "Deregistration process" or "Final deregistered" has stopped filing its annual returns and legally may not trade.
- 4
Check it makes what it sells
Whatever activity CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission) records, the maker-or-middleman question is best answered by facility permits, inspections, product registrations or customs records.
This is a factual pointer to public records, not legal advice. For the full method, see the 7 checks that separate a real supplier from a scam.
Việc kiểm tra này chúng tôi làm giúp bạn
On every South Africa company we list, we show what the open record says, each linked to its free public source so you can re-check it yourself, no paid badge. And we go past the big directories to the local and craft makers who are too small for them but real, then verify and sort them, so you find genuine South Africa suppliers, not just the loudest.
South Africa suppliers by sector
Every company on these pages shows what the open record says about it, each fact linked to its free public source.
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Câu hỏi
Is checking a South Africa supplier free?
Not entirely. The CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission) offers online lookup, but it is not a free anonymous search: expect an account, and a full official extract is a paid per-enquiry document. What the record returns is listed above.
What ID does a South Africa company have?
Its registration number, formatted YYYY/NNNNNN/NN (year of incorporation first). Ask the supplier for it, then confirm it in the CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission) and check the registered name matches.
How do I know a South Africa supplier is a real manufacturer, not a reseller?
Whatever activity CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission) records, the maker-or-middleman question is best answered by a facility permit, an inspection record or a product registration that names the site. The registry search itself is NOT free-and-open: CIPC eServices (and its newer BizPortal front, bizportal.gov.za) require creating an account, and the full disclosure certificate is a paid per-enquiry document. There is no free anonymous company search for South Africa, which is itself worth knowing: any site offering one is reselling CIPC data of unknown freshness.