South Africa / ICASA / Electronic Communications Act
Every piece of electronic communications equipment used, supplied, sold or leased in South Africa needs type approval from ICASA (the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa) under Section 35(1) of the Electronic Communications Act, No. 36 of 2005, applied through the Equipment Authorisation Regulations, 2022. ICASA's own commitment is to process a complete application within 30 days of submission. Through 2026 the regulator has been building a new digital approval-management platform to replace its existing online portal, aimed at fixing accessibility and stability problems that have been slowing applications down — and it has said itself that processing timelines may be unpredictable while that migration is underway, with no confirmed launch date for the replacement system.
Last updated 29 September 2026 · By Vas Parshin and Anabel Amar
ICASA administers type approval through its online portal at online.icasa.org.za, which also handles spectrum licensing. The regulator has acknowledged accessibility and stability problems with that system that have contributed to slower processing of type-approval applications, and is building a replacement platform intended to deliver more stable submission, clearer status tracking on in-progress applications, and fewer technical interruptions. As of 2026 that replacement has no official launch date, applications continue to run through the existing portal, and the regulator itself has said processing timelines may be unpredictable during the transition. Separately, a South African compliance-lab source reported in July 2026 that ICASA "is currently working with delays affecting certification schedules" — without putting a number of weeks or months on it.
Source: GMA Labs, "South Africa: ICASA New Approval Platform to Streamline Type Approval (2026)"; ICASA, "Type approval requirements for South Africa"; ICASA, Equipment Authorisation Regulations, 2022, Government Gazette No. 46146; IB-Lenhardt AG, South Africa market-approval page.
ICASA's 30-day figure is a processing commitment for the regulatory review step only, and it starts once a complete application — including a test report from an accredited laboratory, product photographs, a functional description, schematic diagrams and proof of the applicable fee — has actually been lodged. Getting to that point takes real time of its own: booking lab capacity, running the required performance, EMC and safety testing, and assembling the application package. A submission built on the assumption that "30 days" is the whole project timeline, rather than just ICASA's own stage of it, is the assumption most likely to slip — and a portal migration with an acknowledged risk of unpredictable processing only adds to that gap. Building the pre-submission steps into the plan, and treating ICASA's window as a floor rather than the whole schedule, is the difference between a certification date that holds and one that quietly moves.
Any manufacturer or importer placing telecommunications terminal equipment or radio-frequency equipment on the South African market needs a valid ICASA type-approval certificate before that equipment is used, supplied, sold, offered for sale, leased or hired there, unless it falls under a specific exemption ICASA has published (for example, equipment brought in for a defined special event, where ICASA has indicated it will accept test reports to the relevant European standards from an accredited facility, issued on a special permit). ICASA issues certificates to South African-registered applicants, so a manufacturer with no South African entity needs a locally registered representative to hold and submit the application. A type-approval certificate does not expire on its own, provided the approved equipment is not subsequently modified.
South Africa's Section 35(1) regime sits alongside a wider set of markets we track on their own separate clocks — Saudi Arabia's SASO 3114 ICT rules, the UAE's TDRA customs-clearance permit, and GCC G-Mark all move independently of each other and of South Africa's own platform migration. We follow the South African requirement as part of the same market-access review we run for the rest of the Middle East and Africa region, so a device programme covering more than one of these markets gets one coordinated process rather than a separate one per country, and a heads-up if ICASA's own timelines move further while the new platform beds in.
Contact usSection 35(1) of the Electronic Communications Act, No. 36 of 2005: no person may use, supply, sell, offer for sale, lease or hire any electronic communications equipment in South Africa unless ICASA (the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa) has approved it first, subject to specific exemptions the Authority publishes. The current implementing rules are the Equipment Authorisation Regulations, 2022 (Government Gazette No. 46146, published 31 March 2022).
ICASA is building a new digital approval-management platform to replace its current online submission portal, aimed at fixing accessibility and stability problems that have been slowing type-approval applications. As of 2026 the new platform has no confirmed launch date, applications continue through the existing portal, and ICASA itself has flagged that processing timelines may be unpredictable while the migration is underway.
ICASA's own stated commitment is to process a complete application within 30 days of submission. That clock starts only once a complete, correctly documented application — including an accredited lab's test report — has been lodged. The lab testing, documentation preparation and any pre-submission review that has to happen first commonly add several more weeks on top of ICASA's own 30-day window, and platform-migration disruption can extend the ICASA stage itself beyond that commitment.
Yes. ICASA issues type-approval certificates to South African-registered applicants. A manufacturer with no local entity needs a South African-registered representative to hold and submit the application on its behalf.