Is Southafrica Law free?

Yes, Southafrica Law is free to use.

How do I install Southafrica Law?

Southafrica Law is a local plugin. Install it using npm package: @ansvar/southafrica-law-mcp and add the generated configuration snippet to your AI app's MCP config file. Then restart your AI app.

What AI apps work with Southafrica Law?

Southafrica Law uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and works with any MCP-compatible AI app, including Claude, ChatGPT / Codex, Gemini, Copilot, Cursor, and more.

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Southafrica Law MCP Server

by Mortalus

Developer ToolsLow Risk9.3Local

Free

South Africa legislation via MCP — full-text search across statutes and provisions

About

South Africa legislation via MCP — full-text search across statutes and provisions

Security Report

9.3

Low Risk9.3Low Risk

Valid MCP server (3 strong, 2 medium validity signals). 1 known CVE in dependencies (0 critical, 1 high severity) Package registry verified. Imported from the Official MCP Registry. Trust signals: trusted author (125/125 approved).

5 files analyzed · 2 issues found

Security scores are indicators to help you make informed decisions, not guarantees. Always review permissions before connecting any MCP server.

Permissions Required

This plugin requests these system permissions. Most are normal for its category.

file_system

Check that this permission is expected for this type of plugin.

env_vars

Check that this permission is expected for this type of plugin.

database

Check that this permission is expected for this type of plugin.

How to Install

Add this to your MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "eu-ansvar-southafrica-law-mcp": {
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@ansvar/southafrica-law-mcp"
      ],
      "command": "npx"
    }
  }
}

Documentation

View on GitHub

From the project's GitHub README.

South Africa Law MCP

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server providing full-text search and structured access to South African legislation and case law, including POPIA, the Cybercrimes Act, ECTA, Companies Act, Consumer Protection Act, and more.

Note: South Africa has one of Africa's most mature legal frameworks for data protection and cybersecurity. The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) is considered one of the continent's most comprehensive data protection laws, closely modeled on the EU GDPR. The Information Regulator is the independent data protection authority responsible for enforcement. The Cybercrimes Act (2020) provides a modern, comprehensive framework for addressing cybercrime, aligned with the Budapest Convention.

Deployment Tier

MEDIUM -- dual tier (free + professional), bundled free database.

South Africa has an extensive legal corpus including significant case law from the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court of Appeal, and High Courts. The free tier covers core national legislation, while the professional tier adds full case law coverage.

Tier	DB Size	Includes	Transport
Free (bundled)	~100-200 MB	All national Acts, regulations, key Constitutional Court decisions	stdio (npm)
Professional (full)	~500 MB - 1 GB	All legislation + full case law from all courts	stdio (npm)

Data Sources

Source	Authority	Method	Update Frequency	License	Coverage
SAFLII	SAFLII / UCT / Wits	HTML Scrape	Weekly	Free Access	National Acts, regulations, case law from all courts
South African Government	Government of South Africa	HTML Scrape	On change	Government Open Data	Government Gazette, Acts, regulations, policy documents
Dept. of Justice	Dept. of Justice and Constitutional Development	HTML Scrape	Monthly	Government Public Domain	Constitution, justice-related legislation, POPIA/PAIA regulations

Full provenance metadata: sources.yml

Key Legislation Covered

Act	Identifier	Domain
Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA)	Act 4 of 2013	Data protection, privacy, Information Regulator
Cybercrimes Act	Act 19 of 2020	Cybercrime offences, cyber response, mutual assistance
Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECTA)	Act 25 of 2002	E-commerce, electronic signatures, cyber inspectors
Companies Act	Act 71 of 2008	Corporate governance, company formation
Consumer Protection Act	Act 68 of 2008	Consumer rights, product liability, data in marketing
Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA)	Act 2 of 2000	Right of access to information, public and private bodies
Regulation of Interception of Communications Act (RICA)	Act 70 of 2002	Lawful interception, SIM registration, communications surveillance

Quick Start

Install from npm

npm install -g @ansvar/southafrica-law-mcp

Run via npx (no install)

npx @ansvar/southafrica-law-mcp

Configure in Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "southafrica-law": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ansvar/southafrica-law-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/Ansvar-Systems/southafrica-law-mcp.git
cd southafrica-law-mcp
npm install
npm run build
npm run build:db      # Build the full database
npm run build:db:free # Build the free-tier database
npm start             # Start the server

Tools

Tool	Description
`get_provision`	Retrieve a specific section/article from a South African Act by law identifier and article number
`search_legislation`	Full-text search across all South African legislation
`search_case_law`	Full-text search across Constitutional Court, Supreme Court of Appeal, and High Court decisions
`list_acts`	List all available Acts in the database
`get_act_structure`	Get the table of contents / structure of a specific Act
`get_provision_eu_basis`	Cross-reference a South African provision with related EU/international instruments (GDPR, Budapest Convention, NIS2)

Contract Tests

This MCP includes 12 golden contract tests covering:

Article retrieval (3 tests): POPIA Section 2, Cybercrimes Act Section 2, Companies Act Section 1
Search (3 tests): personal information, cybercrime, electronic communication
Citation roundtrip (2 tests): POPIA citation URL, Cybercrimes Act citation
Cross-reference (2 tests): GDPR relationship, Budapest Convention relationship
Negative cases (2 tests): non-existent Act, malformed section number

Run contract tests:

npm run test:contract

Drift Detection

Golden hashes track 7 stable upstream provisions to detect silent content changes:

Constitution of South Africa (1996), Section 1 (Republic)
Constitution Section 14 (Right to privacy)
POPIA Section 1 (definitions)
POPIA Section 2 (purpose)
Cybercrimes Act Section 1 (definitions)
ECTA Section 1 (definitions)
Companies Act Section 1 (interpretation)

Run drift detection:

npm run drift:detect

Development

npm install          # Install dependencies
npm run build        # Compile TypeScript
npm test             # Run all tests
npm run test:contract  # Run contract tests only
npm run lint         # Lint source code
npm run drift:detect # Check for upstream changes