Bath fly-half Butch James leads a smaller overseas contingent with Clermont and World Cup-winning skipper John Smit as captain.
Two Zimbabwe-born players, winger Tonderai Chavhanga, and prop Brian Mujati are included with the latter winning his first cap.
Pierre Spies was preferred to Ryan Kankowski at number eight and makes a return after missing last year's World Cup with a lung disease which almost ended his career.
South Africa team: C Jantjes; T Chavhanga, A Jacobs, J de Villiers, B Habana; B James, B Conradie; G Steenkamp, J Smit (capt), B Mujati, B Botha, A Bekker, L Watson, J Smith, P Spies.
Replacements: CJ van der Linde, B du Plessis, D Rossouw, R Pienaar, P Grant, P Montgomery, V Matfield.
