Pre-employment screening in South Africa
Run background screening in South Africa in a POPIA-compliant manner, with support from Zinc available at your fingertips.
Checks and features
Background screening built for South Africa’s regulatory frameworks
Beyond the impracticalities
For roles where in-person South African Police Service (SAPS) fingerprinting isn't legally mandated, Zinc offers a criminal court search as a faster alternative.
Multi-lingual chat support
Your candidates need to feel supported, no matter what language they speak. With 24/7 AI chatbot support available in Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, and English, candidates can solve their queries and complete checks without snags.
Single, centralised dashboard
With Zinc, every check, record, and decision is held in one place, designed for teams hiring across South Africa alongside other African and global markets.
9
/10
9
days
Average criminal check completion
21
days
Average education check completion
Built for bottlenecks
SAPS criminal checks require in-person fingerprinting, which isn't always practical for busy hiring teams. Zinc offers a criminal court search as an alternative for companies where fingerprinting isn't a legal requirement, keeping eligible hires moving.
Confidence under POPIA
Zinc's dedicated compliance and legal team helps you decode how to handle criminal record data the right way under POPIA. From understanding how you collect explicit consent before running checks with Zinc correctly, we’re here to help compliance stop feeling like a guessing game.
One dashboard for every border
Run your South African hiring alongside every other country you screen in, all from a single dashboard with audit-ready records. It's built for teams hiring across Africa and beyond, without a separate system for each market.
“The Zinc team has proven to be excellent partners, consistently listening to our feedback, rapidly improving their product, and providing prompt, almost instant, support via Live Chat.”
Checks that work everywhere you do
Full visibility, transparent pricing, and adaptable checks for borderless hiring.
Industry-leading global turnaround times
Adaptive checks, not extra admin
Integrated with your HR tech stack
Truly transparent pricing
Pricing
Built for global teams
Whether you're a growing team or an enterprise hiring across borders, Zinc has a plan for you.
Under 20 hires annually
Pay As You Grow
Get started in minutes. Our Pay As You Grow plan is built for lower hiring volumes — a flat rate per check, with no hidden costs or setup fees.
Start checking in minutes, no setup needed
Flat rates per check, no hidden fees
Pay only for what you check, every month
20+ hires annually
Custom solutions
For larger volumes, our experts build a plan around your needs. Credit is flexible with your hiring and never expires, with integrations, setup, training, and support all included for free.
A custom plan built around your hiring
Credit pool that rolls over and never expires
Integrations, setup, and training included for free
“You can't cut corners on recruitment in education. If you can't do the safeguarding at recruitment, then you're letting unsafe people into the organisation. I needed something that I could depend on, and I’m 100% confident Zinc is it.”
What criminal checks are available for hiring in South Africa?
Zinc offers a criminal history check sourced from the Central Police Register / Criminal Bureau Security Branch of the South African Police Service. The process is fully digital: the employer requests the check via their ATS or Zinc account, the candidate completes a web form and gives consent, Zinc submits the request to SAPS, and a signed digital report is returned once complete. Coverage is nationwide for citizens and foreigners over 15 years old, and reports include all charges ever brought — pending, awaiting trial, withdrawn, or convicted — going back up to 7 years.
Can Zinc run credit checks in South Africa?
Yes. Zinc's Credit Judgment & Litigation check draws on data from XDS, Experian, and TransUnion, authorised via the South African Reserve Bank framework. It covers South African citizens and residents with a credit record and looks back up to 5 years. Under South African law, credit checks are only permissible for employment purposes where the role involves handling money or finance-related duties — the employer must confirm this at submission, and the credit bureau can request a copy of the job description to verify.
What documents are accepted for right-to-work verification in South Africa?
South African citizens: South African Passport or National ID Card
Foreign nationals: Work Permit, Permanent or Temporary Residency Permit, Asylum Seeker/Refugee Permit, or Visitor Visa Section 11(6) (scanned copies accepted for all foreign national documents)
What languages does your customer service support in South Africa?
Our 24/7 AI chatbot can respond to candidates in English, Xhosa, Zulu, and Afrikaans, so they can get support in the language they're most comfortable with.