Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau launched the National Opt-Out Registry in Pretoria on Wednesday. The government said the free platform will let South Africans block unwanted marketing calls, SMSes and other electronic messages.
The registry is run by the National Consumer Commission (NCC). According to SAnews, consumers will be able to sign up and block direct marketers from May 2027, once a phased roll-out is complete.
“Once you have registered a block, direct marketers must remove you from their lists,” Tau said at the launch.
He said a block will apply even if a person gave consent in the past. This includes consent hidden in the fine print of an old contract.
“If a marketer keeps contacting you, report it to the National Consumer Commission. Every complaint helps us enforce the law,” the minister said.
Tau said South Africa ranked ninth in the world for spam call intensity. He said nearly 30% of calls from unknown numbers were classified as spam or fraud.
“Scam and marketing networks are becoming more sophisticated, using spoofing and artificial intelligence to reach consumers,” he said. He added that being alert was not enough without proper rules in place.
SAnews cited Truecaller’s 2026 South Africa Spam Report. It found that South Africans received 17.47 billion spam calls between January and June 2026. That was 25.2% more than in the same period in 2025.
The same report found that spam SMSes rose by 58.9% to 3.71 billion.
Tau said every direct marketer must register with the registry and renew that registration each year. “An unregistered marketer may not contact any consumer for direct marketing,” he said.
Under the system, marketers must also clean their lists every month before running any campaign. According to the NCC, this should stop people who blocked a marketer from getting messages from that marketer.
The registry gives effect to Section 11 of the Consumer Protection Act. That section gives consumers the right to block unwanted direct marketing before it reaches them.
Tau gazetted the Consumer Protection Act Amendment Regulations, 2026, which gave the NCC the power to run the registry.
“A person’s phone number, email address and time are not raw material to be harvested and traded without their consent,” Tau said. He pointed to Section 14 of the Constitution, which protects the right to privacy.
NCC Acting Commissioner Hardin Ratshisusu called the launch a major milestone for consumers. He said they had long been flooded with unwanted marketing.
“The National Opt-Out Registry will promote responsible direct marketing,” Ratshisusu said.
The NCC held a webinar on 24 July 2026 that more than 400 direct marketers attended. “We took most of the recommendations into consideration, including the roll-out of the system,” Ratshisusu said.
He said South Africa joins a growing number of countries with national opt-out or do-not-call registries.
The NCC said it will run a consumer education programme and publish more guidance for consumers and marketers. Consumer registration is set to open in May 2027.
Source: this article is based on reporting by SAnews.gov.za. Image: GCIS via SAnews.gov.za. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Business desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Anelisa Nkuna covers business and money news for Tzaneen Voice. Anelisa reports on the rand, fuel prices, interest rates, jobs, Eskom, Transnet, farming and company results. The aim is simple: explain what the numbers mean for household budgets, small businesses and workers in South Africa.