what's the best options trading platform south Africa for beginners?

You could either trade binary options or you trade Option CFDs.

Binary Options has a fixed amount you will win or lose depending on the outcome of your trade, while for Options CFD the profit/loss is not fixed so you win/lose the price difference between when you entered and closed the trade.

In South Africa, I don't know of any FSCA regulated binary option providers, but I know of FSCA regulated Option CFD brokers.

I will recommend IG Markets & AvaTrade for Options CFD trading because they are regulated by the FSCA and have a track record doing this.

In South Africa you are safer trading Options through FSCA regulated CFD brokers so if you are familiar with CFD trading the same rules will apply, just that the underlying instrument will be an a call or put option instead of forex, stocks, etc. You can trade Options through FSCA regulated brokers like PLUS 500.

What about Binary Options in South Africa? The problem with binary options is that the providers are not regulated by the FSCA because the product itself is very high risk and could lead to lots of losses.

There was a time that the FSCA issued a warning about IQ Options operations in South Africa see details here https://www.fsca.co.za/News%20Documents/FSCA%20Press%20Release_FSCA%20warns%20the%20public%20against%20IQ%20OPTION%20LLC_16%20March%202023.pdf

If you want to trade Binary Options from South Africa you must enroll with a foreign options broker many of which are not properly regulated so my advise is you avoid Binary Options.

For example look at an unregulated binary options broker like Quotex, they are still accepting clients despite the fact that they are unregulated so avoid them please.

Binary options are a scam because there is a big conflict of interest between you and the broker. When you lose the broker wins and vice versa.

The binary options broker is able to pay profits to those who win because their system is designed such that a higher percentage of people lose. they simply pay winners with their profits made from losers.

If you want to get exposure to the Options market, do it through CFD brokers (and not binary options brokers).

They are several local and international CFD brokers who offer options cfd trading. I can name a few such as Deriv & AvaTrade (they have an AvaOptions platform).

However Deriv is not FSCA regulated while AvaTrade is FSCA regulated.

You can trade options with CFD brokers like IG & AvaTrade and if you are into binary options you can try Pocket Option but they are not FSCA regulated.

if you want to buy and hold the real options contract directly from U.S. stock exchanges you can check out the options broker called Trade Zero here https://registration.tradezero.com/step0 but note that Trade Zero is also not FSCA regulated.

Johannesburg Stock Exchange also offers options on stocks JSE listed companies so to buy these options you must pass through a JSE accredited stock broker see list here https://www.jse.co.za/find-a-broker-institution

However, if you want the cheaper route and you want to trade options on interntional stocks without owning them, then you can pass through an FSCA accredited Financial Service Provider like AvaTrade which is well known for options trading.