Data for Cape Town, Johannesburg, Kruger and the Garden Route, installed before you fly. South Africa is on the Africa plan, so the same eSIM carries on to Kenya, Tanzania and the Zambian side of Victoria Falls — the Zimbabwean side is another country, and another story.
The South Africa plan covers South Africa only.
The same 10 GB in a package that keeps working past South Africa.
32 other countries share the package with South Africa. A few of them:
What's included, when it starts, and how to get connected.
Most trips start at Cape Town International or O.R. Tambo in Johannesburg, both modern airports close to town. The first hour comes down to three things: data on, a ride booked in an app, and the main road into town.
Install your onesim eSIM over Wi-Fi and leave the line switched off until you land. While you are still on home Wi-Fi, install Uber or Bolt and sign in, and download offline maps for the Cape Peninsula, the Garden Route or Kruger. Check on the official channels whether your passport needs a visa for South Africa before you book.
After landing, open Settings → Mobile Data, choose the onesim line for mobile data and switch data roaming on for that line only. Your home SIM stays in the phone with its own roaming off, so your number still receives calls and texts. The phone picks a local network by itself, usually within a minute or two.
Ride-hailing works from both airports, and it is the easy way into town. Before you get in, match the plate, the car and the driver’s name to the app: the UK Foreign Office warns about drivers posing as app drivers at airports. In Johannesburg, the Gautrain reaches Sandton in about 15 minutes and takes a contactless bank card.
From Cape Town airport, stay on the N2 and M3 into the city and use the signed airport approach road (N2 exit 16) rather than Borcherd’s Quarry Road. From O.R. Tambo, keep to the main roads and drive straight to where you are staying. Ignore app shortcuts that leave the main roads, and remember that South Africa drives on the left.
Directions here come with robots — traffic lights. ‘Now now’ means in a few minutes; ‘just now’ means some time later, possibly much later, so plan around it. And at the robot itself, keep the phone and the bag off the passenger seat: thieves break car windows at junctions for whatever is in view, so everything goes in the boot.
The braai is how South Africa socialises: boerewors, lamb chops and sosaties over the coals, pap on the side, and guests who arrive with their own meat or a salad in hand. Heritage Day, 24 September, doubles as National Braai Day. Call it a barbecue and someone will explain the difference at length. If you are invited, bring something for the grill.
Before 2015 False Bay was famous for great white sharks. Then two male orcas, known as Port and Starboard, started hunting them for their livers, and by 2020 sightings in the bay were close to zero. The penguins on the same bay did better: Boulders Beach went from two breeding pairs in 1982 to a colony of a few thousand. Ask cage-diving operators about recent sightings before you pay.
In many car parks someone in a high-visibility vest watches the cars and waves you out of the space. It is informal work — car guards are self-employed and the tips are the income — so keep a few coins or a small note in the car for when you leave. A watched car is also a less tempting one for thieves.
The log-drum-heavy house sound came out of Gauteng’s townships in the mid-2010s and now has charts of its own abroad. Tyla’s ‘Water’, pop with amapiano in its bones, won the first Grammy for Best African Music Performance in 2024. Johannesburg is where to hear it properly; ask a local where this weekend’s good sessions are, because the answer changes.
Answers about data, coverage and setup for South Africa.
Not in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Eswatini or Lesotho — none of them is on the Africa plan, and the package stops at those borders. Victoria Falls is split down the middle: the Zambian side around Livingstone is covered, because Zambia is on the plan, while the Zimbabwean side and Victoria Falls town are not. Kenya, Tanzania and the rest of the list on this page share the allowance.
On the Garden Route, mostly: the N2 and the towns along it are well covered, with gaps in the mountain passes and parts of Tsitsikamma. Kruger is patchier on any network — signal comes and goes between the rest camps and on the quieter loops. Download offline maps and your camp bookings before you drive in, and expect the phone to be a camera for most of the day.
Much less likely than the old stories suggest. South Africa has had no load-shedding since 16 May 2025 and came through the whole 2026 winter without it. In the bad years, long cuts and stolen backup batteries knocked out some cell towers, so if cuts ever return, expect thinner signal in places rather than a dead phone. A charged power bank covers the rest.
