The continent currently has the lowest uptake of Covid shots in the world.
The company behind the new vaccine - Afrigen Biologics - says it hopes to start clinical trials in November.
Moderna previously said it would not enforce the patents on its vaccine, allowing scientists in Cape Town to make their own version of it.
The researchers were backed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Petro Terblanche, director of Afrigen Biologics, said they were starting small, but had ambitions to scale up quickly.
