To all the patriotic Americans who think that the FAA rating is superior to some foreign ratings, sorry to burst your bubble! The South African PPL rating meets all the requirements of the FAA rating but includes substantial ground theory not found at any of the FAA schools other than the American aviation universities.
I arrived in the USA with a South African PPL and they converted my SA PPL without requiring any additional training, and I had FULL PPL privileges. I attended a university in Massachusetts and continued to complete an aviation degree and to obtain my FAA CPL and later my FAA ATP.
The FAA theory, unless obtained at a US Aviation university, is a joke but I will admit that the flight training is of a high standard. Ask all the Indian students who learn to fly in the USA and then return to India to write the Indian DGCA papers. They have to attend a full ground school back in India and still struggle to pass the papers. The South African trained Indian pilots find it a breeze getting through the Indian DGCA theory exams.
The Indian DGCA recognises the South African radio license, but those trained in the USA have to qualify for a radio license when they return to India, which is a 6 month debacle.
If you only want a PPL, then do it in the USA, but if you want to go further with aviation as a career then you will be doing yourself a favour training in South Africa.