Frequently Asked Questions 

1. Signing in

Do I need to register or sign-in to access this site?

Yes, you will require a free myDiscover account to view search results and Record View Pages. Some functions, like saving searches and alerts will also require you to register a myDiscover profile.

Do I need to be a subscriber to get access to content?

You need to be subscribed to content to be able to access it OR you can purchase the content via E-commerce or a Prepaid Account.

Note that the African Archives Index is available free of charge but a myDiscover account is required to view the content.

How do I sign in to get access to content?

If you are a subscriber, you will use the authentication method as chosen by your institution. There are various options available:

• If you are an institution using IP Authentication, you will automatically be signed in / authenticated.
• Your institution could also be authenticated via email domain. Users would need to create a myDiscover profile linked to the registered institutional email domain and sign in with their myDiscover credentials to gain access to subscribed content.
• Access via EZproxy and similar remote authentication services is supported.
• You can also sign in using Federation services like Shibboleth, Open Athens and SAFire is also supported.
• Sabinet Discover supports Single Sign On (SSO) options through Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Azure AD as well.
• Please contact Sabinet Client Support on info@sabinet.co.za for assistance with any of the available access methods.

Why do I need to register a myDiscover profile?

Registering a myDiscover profile is not obligatory if you make use of general access provided by your institution. myDiscover does, however, provide you with valuable additional functionality such as saving searches or creating alerts. A myDiscover profile allows the user to explore My Alerts, My Searches, My Briefcases and other myDiscover functionality. For more on myDiscover see the myDiscover User Guide.

How do I sign-out of my institutional access?

Sign out by clicking on the Sign Out icon located next to the ‘Access provided’ notice at the very top of the page.

How do I sign-out of myDiscover?

If you are signed into your myDiscover profile the sign out icon is available under the myDiscover profile logo located in the right-hand-corner of the top toolbar.

How do I get access to a document if I am not a subscriber?

You can become a subscriber or you can do an E-Commerce purchase or purchase a document via a Prepaid Account. Please see the Access & Subscription FAQ.

2. Finding and Accessing Content

What content is covered by Sabinet Discover?

Sabinet’s South African Legal Information Services include amongst others all South African Legislation on National, Provincial and Municipal level as well as all Gazettes from 1910 to current. For a full list of South African Legal Information Services available please see the product drop down menu on Sabinet Discover or visit our Sabinet Corporate Website. 

Sabinet’s News Services (South African News) includes SA Media (News Clippings), a news clipping research service as well as the South African Press Association’s Archive with content dating back as far as 1977 – 2015 and all African News Agency’s newswires from 2015 to 2022.

Research Reports include the African Industry Research Reports which are written by Who Owns Whom and hosted by Sabinet.

Sabinet African Journals encompasses the breadth and depth of African research content by offering the most comprehensive, searchable collection of full-text African electronic journals. Journals are discoverable on Sabinet Discover, but the content is hosted on https://journals.co.za/ and users will seamlessly access articles there. For best results please search directly on Sabinet African Journals if you’re only interested in journal content.

The Specialised Reference Databases collection comprises of South African Citations, SACat Plus and the African Digital Repository.

How do I find content on Sabinet Discover?

Please refer to the user guide to assist you with locating content:

• Sabinet Discover User Guide

What browsing options are supported?

The global navigation at the top of the page offers the ability to browse over all content. Within any section, you can filter the lists by a range of options, such as publication date, content type or subject category. If you select any of these filters, then the listing will change to only show the items you have selected. You can also sort the listing by date (newest content first) or alphabetically. For more information please refer to the Sabinet Discover User Guide.

How do I access the full text of a document?

If you or your institution is subscribed to the product you will be able to access the full text by clicking on any of the PDF icons or the title in the item page.

If you are not subscribed to the product you can purchase a document through E-commerce or through a Prepaid Account. For more information please see our Access & Subscriptions FAQ or the E-commerce and Prepaid Account sections in the Sabinet Discover User Guide.

Why is my content taking such a long time to download?

At busy times we have a large number of users on the platform and this may occasionally mean that download times are slightly slower. If your download is extremely slow, then please retry later. Be aware that some PDFs, particularly those incorporating high-resolution graphics, can be quite large so may take a while to download from our servers. If you have persistent problems with downloading a large PDF document, then please contact info@sabinet.co.za.

Slow response times might also be the result of local network speed. Check with your network administrator if a local network issue isn’t the cause of slow response times.

My PDF does not display, what should I do?

First confirm that you are using a recent version of your preferred PDF reader or the Adobe Reader software, which is freely available from the Adobe site. We recommend using version 8.0 or higher as some PDFs will only display correctly in more recent versions of this software. If, after upgrading your PDF viewer, you are still having problems displaying a PDF document, then please contact info@sabinet.co.za.

3. Purchasing and Downloading a Document

You can purchase a document via Ecommerce or a Prepaid Account. 

Payment is facilitated through PayPal. You can pay using a PayPal account or a credit card. Please note that PayPal may do a test payment of USD1 which will be reversed before the payment is processed on your credit card.

For more information about Ecommerce and Prepaid Accounts see the Access & Subscriptions FAQ or the E-commerce and Prepaid Account sections in the Sabinet Discover User Guide. 

4. Subscriptions

For more information about subscriptions see the Subscription & Access FAQ section.

How do I check until when my subscription is valid?

Please contact Client Support on info@sabinet.co.za for more information.

How do I renew my subscription?

You will receive a reminder of your renewal of your subscription a month prior to your renewal period. Please contact Client Support on info@sabinet.co.za or your Portfolio Manager for further information.

5. Technical Issues

Which Internet browser should I use?

We support browsers on both Windows and Mac platforms such as Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Opera, etc. You should find that all pages are functional in all browsers, however, no two browsers will render all pages identically. We recommend installing or updating to the latest version of your preferred browser.

Note: For Windows users, certain actions will open a new tab; however, for Mac users, this functionality is unavailable meaning new tabs will not open.

What PDF viewer should I use? 

You may use any preferred PDF viewer, but we recommend making use of Adobe Reader version 8.0 or higher which is free to download from Adobe’s website. Although we aim to make all documents as accessible as possible, some newer PDFs may not be readable in older versions of Adobe Reader.

Can I access the site with cookies or JavaScript disabled?

Access to the site is not possible with JavaScript disabled and essential cookies are needed for access purposes. You can, however, disable non-essential cookies using the pop-up.

6. Accessibility

What is your commitment to accessibility?

Please refer to section 4 Sabinet Discover Accessibility in the Access & Subscriptions FAQ for for more in-depth accessibility information.

How do I allow PDF documents to be read out loud? 

PDFs are accessible to your preferred screen reader.

The font size is too small, how do I make it easier to read?

Please readjust your font size in your browser.

7. Security and Privacy

What is your policy on privacy and use of cookies?

Cookies are small files stored on your computer that we use to recognize you and your access privileges and preferences. We store and protect minimal personally identifying information in cookies. We do not store complete records or credit card numbers in cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies. Most browsers can be configured to prevent this, but you may not be able to access some parts of our site without cookies. Please see our full privacy policy for details.

8. Copyright and Licensing

How can I obtain permission for re-use?

Please contact Sabinet at info@sabinet.co.za with the relevant document’s details (a title and link to the document) and we will get back to you as soon as possible.