Hanging Up on Spam: South Africa Tightens the Rules on Direct Marketing
05 October 2026, Jan van Zyl
Few
experiences are as universally familiar to South African consumers as the
unsolicited call from an unfamiliar number, arriving mid-meeting... or mid-meal,
offering funeral cover, debt consolidation, or an "exclusive"
investment opportunity never requested. Until recently, consumers had little
recourse beyond hanging up, blocking the number, and waiting for the next call
to arrive from a different line. As of this year, that experience is, for the
first time, the subject of a coordinated statutory response.