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The Heineken Cup quarter-finalists were missing players of the quality of Steve Williams, Matt Dawson and Ben Cohen - all away on Six Nations duty but still had too much for the visiting South Africans.
The Cats had the better of the early exchanges, and went ahead with a try from Friedrich Lombard. Kennedy Tsimba added a penalty goal after 20 minutes to give the Super-12 side a 10-point cushion.
But the 2000 Heineken Cup winners then went on the rampage, tying the visiting defence in knots with training ground patterns that must have given Northampton coach Wayne Smith confidence ahead of his side's Heineken Cup quarter-final with Toulouse on April 12.
Saints roared straight back as Oriol Ripol rounded off a good move to touch down and bring his side back into the game at 8-5 down at the interval.
Then Kiwi prop Chris Budgen went over for the first of his two scores soon after the restart and added another after a rolling maul.
Mark Tucker pounced for Saints' third and Nick Beal finished off good work in the backs for his side's fifth. Bruce Reihana added a fourth conversion to give the Saints a morale boosting victory.
