Driver and Delivery Work for Foreign Nationals in South Africa

The short version

Each company says something different, and several say nothing at all.

• Uber Eats says the most. Its accepted identity documents are a South African ID book or card, a South African passport, a non-South African passport with a permit, an asylum seeker or refugee permit, or a refugee ID.
• Takealot's form offers another country's passport as an identity option, and asks non-South African citizens to add a work permit or an asylum document. It does not name a refugee status document.
• Pingo, which does Checkers Sixty60 deliveries, names a South African work permit and what it calls an asylum visa. It does not name a foreign passport or a refugee document.
• Mr D names a work permit only. No passport, no asylum document, no refugee document.
• Picup asks a driver who is not a South African citizen for an asylum seeker document, work permit or visa, and then writes “etc”. It has one ID document slot and does not say what may fill it, so it names no passport of any kind, and no refugee status document.
• Uber, Bolt and inDrive name no identity documents at all. Not for South Africans either. We cannot tell you what they accept.

A company not naming a document is not the same as refusing it. But it means you have nothing to show at a branch.

Note the wording on the two clearest lists. Uber Eats writes “Non-South African Passport + Permit”, and Takealot asks for a passport and a work permit or asylum document. Neither accepts a foreign passport on its own.

Four of them have the same gap. Takealot, Pingo, Mr D and Picup all name an asylum or work permit document, and none names a section 24 refugee document. Uber Eats is the only one that does.

The driving permit is usually the harder step

For passenger work with Uber or Bolt, the hard part is usually the professional driving permit, not the app.

A driving licence testing centre issues the PrDP, not Uber or Bolt. The government's checklist asks for an identity document, driving licence card or valid South African passport, four photographs, a valid driving licence for the category, a medical certificate no older than two months, and proof of address. It does not cover every foreign-document case.

Bolt's own PrDP guide is more direct about this than the government page: it says a South African citizen brings an ID card or book and a foreign national brings a valid passport. That is Bolt describing the process, not a rule, but it is the clearest thing said on the subject.

You also need a valid South African driving licence card for the PrDP, which is a real obstacle if you drive on a foreign licence.

This is the main difference between delivery work and passenger work. Uber Eats, Takealot, Mr D, Pingo, Picup and Sixty60 mention no PrDP. Uber and Bolt cannot activate you without one.

What the law says about working

DriverZA does not give immigration or legal advice, and this section is not advice. It is what UNHCR South Africa says, in plain words.

Two different things get confused all the time, so keep them apart:

• A company saying it accepts a document. That is an onboarding rule. It is what most of this site records.
• Being allowed to work in South Africa. That is your immigration status, and no app decides it.

One does not prove the other, in either direction.

A recognised refugee under section 24 has the right to seek employment in South Africa.

An asylum seeker under section 22 does not automatically have permission to work while the claim is being decided. The section 22 document has to be endorsed to permit work, which means applying to the Standing Committee, and the Standing Committee decides whether to grant it and on what conditions.

UNHCR also says plainly that this practice “has not yet been fully implemented”. So what happens in practice may not match what the rule says, in either direction.

Your own permit and its endorsements decide this, not a website and not an app. Check with the Department of Home Affairs, and check what your own document actually says on it.