Minister Parks Tau signs new rules to protect the public from spam calls

Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition Parks Tau has amended the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) to protect South Africans from intrusive spam calls by opportunistic telemarketers. This is something the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) was supposed to do, but companies found a loophole: the Act does not completely ban telemarketers; it only regulates how they can contact people. The amendments introduce “cleansing”, which is a process of removing consumers who have opted out of any electronic communication from the direct marketer’s database, ensuring that they are no longer contacted.

This means direct marketers must cleanse their databases monthly against the NCC’s opt-out registry. They are also prohibited from marketing to any consumer who has registered a block. The public can place a pre-emptive block by filling in a form and submitting it to the consumer watchdog.

The Commission must ensure the registry remains continuously accessible, except in cases of unexpected technical downtime, and must notify the public if the system is unavailable for 24 hours or longer. The draft amendments to the Consumer Protection Act introduce stronger disclosure requirements for direct marketing communications. Marketers will be required to clearly identify themselves in every message, including their registered business name, physical address, and reliable contact details.

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The aim is to improve transparency so consumers can easily verify who is contacting them and hold businesses accountable for any misuse of their personal information or aggressive marketing practices. The amendments also tighten rules around the sending of bulk SMS messages by reinforcing consumers’ right to opt out through a national blocking system. According to the amendments, marketers will be required to pay a prescribed renewal fee.

This is “to facilitate the effective operation of the opt-out registry”. The regulations set out a fee structure that includes an initial registration cost of R2 574 in 2026, which gradually increases to R2 979.73 by 2029.

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