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A business day in Johannesburg

WhatsApp Business API for Johannesburg buyers, checked before the first send

Johannesburg is three and a half hours behind India, on the same clock all year. Most mistakes in a first programme here are made before the send: the number, the consent, the language.

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  1. 08:00

    Johannesburg offices open. It is 11:30 in India, and the export desk has been in for two hours.

  2. 10:30

    A rice importer asks on WhatsApp whether the consignment has cleared; the answer goes from India at 14:00 IST.

  3. 13:00

    The ERP sends a dispatch template for a vehicle-parts order at 16:30 IST.

  4. 16:30

    The last questions of the Johannesburg day reach India at 20:00 IST; the 24-hour window keeps them answerable tomorrow.

Province
Gauteng
Country
South Africa
Clock
SAST, UTC+2, no daylight saving; IST is 3h 30m ahead[3]
Indian consulate
1 Eton Road, Parktown, Johannesburg[2]
India–South Africa trade
About US$18.0 billion in 2024-25[1]
Indian-origin South Africans
About 1.7 million, some 3% of the population[1]
Landline code
011, or +27 11 from abroad

For Indian exporters of vehicles, engineering goods and rice, and businesses serving South Africans of Indian origin: a checklist for the first WhatsApp message to a Johannesburg number, the trade behind it, SAST send times, template languages and what each message costs in rupees.

See it work

Seven checks before the first message to a Johannesburg number

Work down the list for one new contact, a dealer, a distributor or a family, and tick each item off. The required ones decide whether you may send at all.

Order and delivery updates need only the first two checks and a template in the right language: a dealer who ordered parts is waiting for them. The consent checks matter for anything that promotes, a new range or a price offer, and they are where Johannesburg programmes go wrong, because a business card from a meeting in Sandton is not consent.

Section 69's text and the April 2025 changes to the POPIA Regulations are covered in the South Africa guide. InfiQ's consent records keep the source and time of each opt-in and enforce STOP replies.

A first-send checklist for +27 contacts

7/7

ticked

Required
5 / 5
Optional
2 / 2

Ready for the first Johannesburg send

Every item ticked.

The consent items paraphrase section 69 of POPIA and WhatsApp's own opt-in rule; they are a working summary, not legal advice. The South Africa guide sets out the law in full.

Ready for the first Johannesburg send. 7 of 7 ticked.

What travels between India and Johannesburg

Figures from India's High Commission in Pretoria, which publishes the Ministry of Commerce's trade data, and the time zone database.

India's exports to South Africa were worth about US$7.46 billion in 2024-25 and its imports about US$10.55 billion, for total trade of about US$18.01 billion.[1]

India sells South Africa vehicles and components, transport equipment, medicines, engineering goods, footwear, dyes, chemicals, textiles, rice, and gems and jewellery.[1]

India buys gold, steam coal, copper ores and concentrates, phosphoric acid, manganese ore and aluminium ingots from South Africa.[1]

The High Commission puts the Indian-origin community at around 1.7 million people, about 3% of South Africa's population, and notes the 2025 G20 Summit held in Johannesburg.[1]

India's Consulate General in Johannesburg is at 1 Eton Road, Parktown; India also has consulates in Cape Town and Durban.[2]

South Africa has kept South African Standard Time, UTC+2, since 1903, and last used daylight saving in 1942 to 1944.[3]

Who messages what

India's exports, and the messages each one needs

The goods on the High Commission's list, sold to buyers in and around Johannesburg, and one group of readers who are not exporters at all.

SectorWhat it sends on WhatsApp
Vehicles and componentsFirst on the list of India's exports. Dealers and fleet buyers want to know when parts land and when vehicles are ready.[1]
  • Dealer order acknowledgement
  • Shipment and clearance updates
  • Parts-availability replies
Rice exportersRice is on the High Commission's list of India's exports, sold to importers and wholesalers who track each shipment and its paperwork as closely as the grain.[1]
  • Importer order confirmations
  • Dispatch notices with the bill of lading attached
  • Clearance and delivery updates
Engineering goods, footwear and textilesBuyers place repeat orders and expect samples, approvals and invoices without a phone call.[1]
  • Sample dispatch
  • Drawing or design approvals
  • Invoice and payment-received notices
Services for South Africans of Indian originA community of about 1.7 million; banks, travel firms and families' service providers in India write to customers in Gauteng and beyond.[1]
  • Travel bookings to India
  • Account and remittance alerts
  • Festival gift and parcel delivery to India

Four template languages for a city of many

Johannesburg customers may read any of South Africa's official languages. Meta's template list covers a few of them; the rest are reached in English, with replies in their own language.

Sesotho, Setswana, isiXhosa and South Africa's other official languages are not on Meta's template list, so templates for those customers go in English. Inside the 24-hour service window, agents can reply in whatever language the customer wrote in.

Meta template languages relevant to Johannesburg
LanguageMeta codeUse it for
English (South Africa)en_ZAThe default for dealers, distributors and most consumers
AfrikaansafFor contacts who chose Afrikaans
isiZuluzuFor contacts who chose isiZulu
HindihiCustomers of Indian origin who asked for it; ask rather than assume

Three and a half hours, and most of the day shared

South Africa runs on UTC+2 and India on UTC+5:30, and neither changes its clocks, so Johannesburg is three and a half hours behind IST in every month of the year. 08:00 in Johannesburg is 11:30 in India; 17:00 is 20:30.

That leaves a wide overlap. An Indian office open from 09:30 to 18:30 IST covers 06:00 to 15:00 in Johannesburg, so a distributor's morning questions arrive in the Indian lunch hour and can be answered the same afternoon. Only the last two hours of the Johannesburg working day fall in the Indian evening.

Schedule broadcasts in SAST, though, not IST: a campaign set for 10:00 by an Indian habit reaches Johannesburg at 06:30. And keep InfiQ's own support hours in mind: its team works in English and Hindi, on India time.

Prices in ₹ and ZAR

What a message to a Johannesburg number costs

+27 numbers are billed on South Africa's own line of Meta's rate card: ₹3.34 for marketing, ₹0.8369 for utility, ₹0.8369 for authentication and ₹0.8369 for a service reply, in rupees before GST. Plans start at ₹999 a month.

Snapshot rates · as of 20 Oct 2026, 00:02 UTC

Lite

₹999 / month≈ R 172.96 ZAR

₹833 / month, billed yearly≈ R 144.22 ZAR

Growth

₹2,999 / month≈ R 519.23 ZAR

₹2,499 / month, billed yearly≈ R 432.66 ZAR

Enterprise

Custom volume pricing, custom SLA and dedicated infrastructure.

Per message to Johannesburg · South Africa

InfiQ per-message rates for Johannesburg in rupees and ZAR
Category₹ INRZAR
Marketing₹3.3385R 0.578
Utility₹0.8369R 0.145
Authentication₹0.8369R 0.145
Service₹0.8369R 0.145
Per-message rates for all 47 markets, in ₹ and ZAR
Per-message rates by market, effective 1 October 2026
MarketMarketingUtilityAuthenticationService
ArgentinaR 0.941₹5.4352R 0.396₹2.2874R 0.396₹2.2874R 0.396₹2.2874
BangladeshR 1.11₹6.4397R 0.0563₹0.3254R 0.0563₹0.3254R 0.0563₹0.3254
BrazilR 0.952₹5.4970R 0.104₹0.5981R 0.104₹0.5981R 0.104₹0.5981
ChileR 1.35₹7.8162R 0.304₹1.7585R 0.304₹1.7585R 0.304₹1.7585
ColombiaR 0.190₹1.0993R 0.0122₹0.0706R 0.0122₹0.0706R 0.0122₹0.0706
EgyptR 0.980₹5.6629R 0.0548₹0.3167R 0.0548₹0.3167R 0.0548₹0.3167
FranceR 1.31₹7.5588R 0.457₹2.6393R 0.457₹2.6393R 0.457₹2.6393
GermanyR 2.08₹12.0088R 0.838₹4.8386R 0.838₹4.8386R 0.838₹4.8386
Hong KongR 1.11₹6.4397R 0.396₹2.2867R 0.396₹2.2867R 0.396₹2.2867
HungaryR 1.31₹7.5596R 0.532₹3.0700R 0.532₹3.0700R 0.532₹3.0700
IndiaR 0.163₹0.9435R 0.0336₹0.1941R 0.0243₹0.1402R 0.0251₹0.1450
IndonesiaR 0.626₹3.6133R 0.381₹2.1979R 0.381₹2.1979R 0.381₹2.1979
IraqR 0.519₹2.9992R 0.120₹0.6943R 0.120₹0.6943R 0.120₹0.6943
IsraelR 0.537₹3.1045R 0.0807₹0.4662R 0.0807₹0.4662R 0.0807₹0.4662
ItalyR 1.21₹6.9847R 0.457₹2.6369R 0.457₹2.6369R 0.457₹2.6369
KazakhstanR 0.919₹5.3098R 0.274₹1.5824R 0.274₹1.5824R 0.274₹1.5824
KuwaitR 1.21₹6.9671R 0.670₹3.8671R 0.670₹3.8671R 0.670₹3.8671
MalaysiaR 1.31₹7.5644R 0.213₹1.2314R 0.213₹1.2314R 0.213₹1.2314
MexicoR 0.604₹3.4877R 0.129₹0.7471R 0.129₹0.7471R 0.129₹0.7471
MoroccoR 0.631₹3.6425R 0.350₹2.0218R 0.350₹2.0218R 0.350₹2.0218
NetherlandsR 2.43₹14.0494R 0.762₹4.3987R 0.762₹4.3987R 0.762₹4.3987
NepalR 1.11₹6.4397R 0.0518₹0.2990R 0.0518₹0.2990R 0.0518₹0.2990
NigeriaR 0.786₹4.5421R 0.102₹0.5898R 0.102₹0.5898R 0.102₹0.5898
OmanR 0.519₹2.9992R 0.376₹2.1709R 0.376₹2.1709R 0.376₹2.1709
PakistanR 0.721₹4.1620R 0.229₹1.3200R 0.229₹1.3200R 0.229₹1.3200
PeruR 1.07₹6.1843R 0.457₹2.6392R 0.457₹2.6392R 0.457₹2.6392
PolandR 0.556₹3.2105R 0.185₹1.0702R 0.185₹1.0702R 0.185₹1.0702
QatarR 0.519₹2.9992R 0.183₹1.0547R 0.183₹1.0547R 0.183₹1.0547
RomaniaR 1.31₹7.5596R 0.440₹2.5436R 0.440₹2.5436R 0.440₹2.5436
RussiaR 1.22₹7.0520R 0.609₹3.5173R 0.609₹3.5173R 0.609₹3.5173
Saudi ArabiaR 0.875₹5.0537R 0.163₹0.9401R 0.163₹0.9401R 0.163₹0.9401
SingaporeR 1.11₹6.4397R 0.244₹1.4072R 0.244₹1.4072R 0.244₹1.4072
South AfricaR 0.578₹3.3385R 0.145₹0.8369R 0.145₹0.8369R 0.145₹0.8369
SpainR 1.08₹6.2161R 0.304₹1.7578R 0.304₹1.7578R 0.304₹1.7578
Sri LankaR 1.11₹6.4397R 0.0305₹0.1759R 0.0305₹0.1759R 0.0305₹0.1759
TurkeyR 0.166₹0.9587R 0.0137₹0.0792R 0.0137₹0.0792R 0.0137₹0.0792
UkraineR 1.31₹7.5596R 0.453₹2.6138R 0.453₹2.6138R 0.453₹2.6138
United Arab EmiratesR 0.875₹5.0537R 0.239₹1.3811R 0.239₹1.3811R 0.239₹1.3811
United KingdomR 0.966₹5.5795R 0.335₹1.9346R 0.335₹1.9346R 0.335₹1.9346
North AmericaR 0.380₹2.1976R 0.0517₹0.2989R 0.0517₹0.2989R 0.0517₹0.2989
Rest of AfricaR 0.343₹1.9796R 0.0609₹0.3516R 0.0609₹0.3516R 0.0609₹0.3516
Rest of Asia PacificR 1.28₹7.4057R 0.172₹0.9938R 0.172₹0.9938R 0.172₹0.9938
Rest of Central & Eastern EuropeR 1.31₹7.5596R 0.322₹1.8595R 0.322₹1.8595R 0.322₹1.8595
Rest of Latin AmericaR 1.13₹6.5048R 0.172₹0.9934R 0.172₹0.9934R 0.172₹0.9934
Rest of Middle EastR 0.597₹3.4490R 0.138₹0.7998R 0.138₹0.7998R 0.138₹0.7998
Rest of Western EuropeR 0.901₹5.2054R 0.260₹1.5019R 0.260₹1.5019R 0.260₹1.5019
OtherR 0.919₹5.3098R 0.117₹0.6769R 0.117₹0.6769R 0.117₹0.6769
Currency converter

R 172.96 ZAR

Indicative conversion at reference rates (ExchangeRate-API snapshot). InfiQ sets and invoices prices in Indian rupees, excluding GST; your bank’s rate on the day you pay will differ. Rates By Exchange Rate API.

Plan prices are monthly, in rupees, excluding GST; yearly billing is two months free. Messages are charged per delivered message on top of the plan, at the rate for the recipient’s country. Full details: InfiQ pricing. A customer of Indian origin who keeps an Indian +91 number is billed at the India rate instead, ₹0.19 for a utility message. Rand figures in the converter are indicative; InfiQ invoices in rupees.

Work out your own monthly cost by message type.

Calculate your exact cost

On InfiQ

What an Indian team uses for Johannesburg

The checklist, carried into the platform.

  1. Consent records and opt-out enforcement

    Each Johannesburg contact's opt-in source and time is recorded and STOP is enforced, so a refusal stays a refusal after the next list import.

  2. Template manager and library

    Keep en_ZA, Afrikaans and isiZulu versions of each dispatch and order template, with your name and an opt-out line in every marketing one.

  3. Shared team inbox

    Dealer and distributor questions from the Johannesburg morning reach the shared inbox in the Indian afternoon, while the export desk is still in.

  4. Developer API and webhooks

    Your ERP sends the clearance, dispatch or batch-document template when the status changes, and signed webhooks report delivery back.

Nearby

City pages near Johannesburg

The nearest city guides on this site, in South Africa and its neighbours.

POPIA, section 69 and the South Africa rate apply across the country; the South Africa guide covers them in full.

Guides for Johannesburg teams

Questions Johannesburg businesses ask

Our Johannesburg distributor's landline is 011 and his mobile starts 082. How do we save them for WhatsApp?+
Drop the leading 0 and add South Africa's country code: 082 … becomes +27 82 … and the 011 landline becomes +27 11 …, stored without spaces. Only numbers registered on WhatsApp can receive messages, so the landline works only if the business has put it on WhatsApp.
We export vehicle components to a Johannesburg dealer group. Is a parts-arrival message a marketing template?+
No. A notice about parts the dealer ordered is a utility template, ₹0.8369 per delivered message to a +27 number. A note announcing a new range to dealers who did not ask for it is marketing, ₹3.34 each, and POPIA's direct-marketing rules apply; the [South Africa guide](/whatsapp-business-api/countries/south-africa) sets them out.
When should a send leave India to reach a Sandton office at the start of its working day?+
At 11:30 IST for 08:00 in Johannesburg, all year: South Africa has not used daylight saving since 1944 and India does not change its clocks either. Your working day overlaps most of the Johannesburg one, so questions that arrive before 15:00 SAST can be answered the same afternoon.
Can our templates for South Africans of Indian origin in Johannesburg be in Hindi?+
Yes, for customers who chose it: Hindi (hi) is on Meta's template list, and the High Commission puts the Indian-origin community at about 1.7 million. Ask for the language at opt-in rather than guessing from a surname, and send en_ZA where nobody chose otherwise.
Our rice importer in Johannesburg wants the shipping documents on WhatsApp. Can the template carry a PDF?+
Yes. A utility template can carry a document header, so a bill of lading or an invoice goes as a PDF with the dispatch notice. Anything the importer asks for afterwards can go as a free-form reply within the 24-hour window, at ₹0.8369 per message.
A buyer we met in Sandton gave us a business card. May we WhatsApp them a product offer?+
Not straight away. WhatsApp's policy needs their opt-in to your messages first, and POPIA allows only one approach to a person who is not yet a customer to ask for marketing consent. Invite them to write to you, or to tick a WhatsApp opt-in on your form, and record the answer either way.
We import from India through a company registered in Gauteng. Can that company sign up to InfiQ itself?+
InfiQ serves India-based businesses: it bills in rupees with GST, keeps customer data in India and supports customers in English and Hindi on India time. If your business is based in Johannesburg, talk to sales about whether InfiQ fits, and raise the India data hosting with your POPIA adviser.
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Sources

Facts on this page were checked against these sources on the dates shown. Page updated 2026-10-20.

  1. [1]India–South Africa relations (trade 2020-21 to 2024-25, diaspora) · High Commission of India, Pretoria · read 2026-10-20
  2. [2]Consulate General of India, Johannesburg · High Commission of India, Pretoria · read 2026-10-20
  3. [3]tzdb 'africa' file: Africa/Johannesburg and the SA rules · IANA Time Zone Database · read 2026-10-20
  4. [4]POPIA section 69: Direct marketing by means of unsolicited electronic communications · popia.co.za · read 2026-10-20

Check it once, then send to Johannesburg

Start a 7-day Lite trial, no card needed, and work through the checklist before your first +27 send. If your business is based in Johannesburg, talk to sales about whether InfiQ fits.

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Johannesburg

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