We a proud to announce the activation of our new REST API. As a priority we converted our account validation and electronic debit mandate capturing features. We are in the process of completing the documentation. Please contact us for assistance if you require more technical information.

Account Validation
The bank account validation test will verify your customers South African ID number, Cell number, branch code and bank account number. This will greatly reduce any initial account errors. The pre check will give you the opportunity to contact your customer to update their details before submitting the debit order.

Electronic Debit Mandate Capturing
A prerequisite for the processing of any debit order is to have a confirmed debit mandate from the customer. We can facilitate this via our electronic mandate capturing feature. You submit the clients banking details and mobile number. We sms the customer notifying them of your request. The customer dials a USSD number and either accepts or declines the request. The request is logged.

Besides checking the length of a South African ID number for validation, our developer Clive Crous thought there must be an official checksum. After piecing together multiple google searches he has build a ruby class which validates our customer ID numbers. Our online debit engine is enhanced a little further.

Below is the ruby code, enjoy

Download the identity_number.rb file

1 require ‘time‘ # Used for verifying date of birth portion of ID Number
2
3 class SouthAfricanIDNumber
4
5 # The format of a normal South-African ID number is as follows
6 # {YYMMDD}{G}{SSS}{A}{Z}
7 # YYMMDD: Date of birth
8 # G  : Gender. 0-4 Female; 5-9 Male.
9 # SSS  : Sequence No. for DOB/G combination.
10 # C  : Citizenship. 0 SA; 1 Other.
11 # A  : Usually 8, or 9 (can be other values)
12 # Z  : Control digit.
13
14 def initialize( number )
15 @number = number.to_s
16 end
17
18 def gender
19 self[6] > 4 ? :male : :female
20 end
21
22 def south_african?
23 self[10] == 0
24 end
25
26 def generate_check_digit
27 odd_digits = @number.scan(/../).map{|n|n[0].chr}
28 even_digits = @number.scan(/../).map{|n|n[1].chr}
29
30 sum_of_odd_digits = odd_digits.inject(0){ |total,digit| total + digit.to_i }
31
32 combined_and_multiplied_even_digits = even_digits.join(”).to_i * 2
33
34 sum_of_even_digits_multiplied =
35 combined_and_multiplied_even_digits.to_s.scan(/./).inject(0){|total,digit|total + digit.to_i }
36
37 ( 10 – ( (sum_of_odd_digits + sum_of_even_digits_multiplied) % 10 ) ) % 10
38 end
39
40 def valid_format?
41 @number =~ /^[0-9]{13}$/ ? true : false
42 end
43
44 def valid_birth_date?
45 begin
46 return false unless Time.parse(@number[0..5]).strftime(‘%y%m%d‘) == @number[0..5]
47 rescue
48 return false
49 end
50 true
51 end
52
53 def valid_check_digit?
54 self[12] == generate_check_digit
55 end
56
57 def valid?
58 valid_format? and valid_birth_date? and valid_check_digit?
59 end
60
61 def to_s
62 @number
63 end
64
65 def []( character_enum )
66 begin
67 @number[character_enum].chr.to_i
68 rescue
69 nil
70 end
71 end
72
73 end
74