In January, MacRumors reported that Apple Pay was likely to launch in South Africa sometime this year. As expected, Apple Pay has now started to go live in the country for customers of a select number of banks.
MacRumors readers and bank customers on Twitter report seeing prompts to add their cards to Apple Pay. So far, it seems that only Discovery, Nedbank, and Absa customers are able to add their cards to Apple's Wallet app.
Apple Pay has just gone live in South Africa 🚀 🌍 So far it looks like @Discovery_SA and @Nedbank cards are supported. — Alastair Hendricks (@ali_hen) March 30, 2021
Just loaded my cards on Apple Pay. Went live in SA today! #ApplePay #SouthAfrica — Gabriel Swanepoel (@Gabswan) March 30, 2021
To add a card to Apple Pay, customers should open the Wallet app, tap the plus button, and follow the on-screen instructions. It's important to note that banks must first add support for Apple Pay. Attempting to add an unsupported bank card will result in a pop-up reading, "Your issuer does not yet offer support for this card."
Apple's South African website hasn't yet been updated to reflect Apple Pay's rollout in the country, which isn't unusual, as rollout seems to have just begun in the past few hours.
Apple first launched Apple Pay in 2014 in the United States, and in the years since, it's slowly expanded to more countries around the world. Last month, Apple Pay officially launched in Mexico.
(Thanks Grant, Pieter, and Ludolph!)
