South African Phone Number Regex for Python

What this pattern does

This page provides a well-structured, multi-part regular expression for matching south african phone number, ported and verified for Python. A rigorously tested regex reduces debugging time and protects your application from edge-case failures. The snippet below is ready to drop into your Python project — whether you're validating in a Django view, a FastAPI endpoint, or a standalone data processing script.

Python Implementation

# South African Phone Number
# ReDoS-safe | RegexVault — Localization > Phone Numbers

import re

south_african_phone_number_pattern = re.compile(r'^(?:\+27[\s.-]?|0)([1-9][0-9])[\s.-]?([0-9]{3})[\s.-]?([0-9]{4})$')

def validate_south_african_phone_number(value: str) -> bool:
    return bool(south_african_phone_number_pattern.fullmatch(value))

# Example
print(validate_south_african_phone_number("+27 11 123 4567"))  # True

Test Cases

When to use this pattern

This pattern is drawn from the Localization > Phone Numbers category and carries a ReDoS-safe certification. That matters for Python developers because particularly important in Python web servers where CPU-bound regex operations can stall concurrent request handling. RegexVault audits patterns against known backtracking attack vectors, ensuring you have the necessary context before using this regex in a high-stakes production environment.

Common Pitfalls

Technical Notes

South African area codes: 010-011 (Johannesburg), 021 (Cape Town), 031 (Durban), 041 (Port Elizabeth). Mobile prefixes: 060-065 (Telkom), 071-079 (Vodacom), 081-083 (MTN). +27 replaces the leading 0.