New rules could finally stop those unwanted calls in South Africa
PRETORIA — South Africans tired of unwanted sales calls, SMSes and marketing emails will be able to place themselves on a national register that direct marketers will be legally required to check before contacting them.
Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau will on Wednesday formally brief the public on the National Opt-Out Registry, a system intended to give consumers a single mechanism to block unwanted direct marketing rather than repeatedly asking individual companies to stop contacting them.
The system is administered by the National Consumer Commission under amended regulations to the Consumer Protection Act.
Consumers will be able to register a pre-emptive block against an individual marketer or the direct marketing industry more broadly. Businesses conducting direct marketing will have to register with the system and check their customer and prospect databases against the registry before launching campaigns.
One of the biggest changes is that marketers will be required to cleanse their databases every month, removing people who have registered that they do not want to receive direct marketing.
That shifts considerably more responsibility onto businesses.
Instead of consumers having to unsubscribe separately from companies contacting them, a registered pre-emptive block is intended to tell marketers before contact takes place that the consumer does not want the communication. The regulations cover direct marketing rather than ordinary service communications from businesses with which consumers have existing relationships.
The rules also carry potentially substantial consequences for businesses that ignore them.
The National Consumer Commission says failure to comply with the amended regulations constitutes a violation of the Consumer Protection Act and could attract an administrative penalty of up to R1 million or 10% of the marketer’s annual turnover, whichever is greater.
For companies that rely heavily on telemarketing, bulk SMS campaigns, email marketing and customer databases, the registry therefore creates a compliance requirement rather than simply another voluntary “do not call” list.
The system has been years in development. The NCC’s 2024/25 annual report recorded more than R6.8 million in development costs for the Opt-Out Registry, which at that stage was awaiting final regulations before becoming fully available to the public.
The commission has set a target of registering 20,000 direct marketers during the 2026/27 financial year.
Wednesday’s briefing should provide further clarity on how consumers will register, how businesses will access and cleanse their databases against the system and how enforcement will work when marketers continue contacting people who have opted out.
Tau will be joined by National Consumer Commissioner Hardin Ratshisusu and Information Regulator chairperson Advocate Pansy Tlakula at the briefing in Pretoria.
For South Africans accustomed to repeatedly blocking numbers only to receive another marketing call from somewhere else, the registry could make one instruction considerably more powerful: don’t call me.
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