End of an era for spam calls in South Africa – with a big catch for political parties and charities
The National Consumer Commission (NCC) has gazetted draft guidelines for the new national consumer opt-out registry for public comment.
The document offers practical guidelines for companies to follow, as the NCC prepares to launch its opt-out registry to protect consumers from unsolicited marketing.
The legal framework governing the establishment and operation of the opt-out registry is premised on section 11 of the CPA.
This section provides that every person has a right to privacy and to avoid or pre-emptively block any approach or communication that is primarily for the purpose of direct marketing.
2026 amendments to the regulations operationalise the opt-out registry and introduce requirements relating to direct marketer registration, renewal, database cleansing, compliance with pre-emptive blocks, identification of direct marketers and prescribed fees.
The draft guideline also clarifies several questions that have arisen around the registry and what constitutes direct marketing.
For example, not all business communication qualifies as direct marketing under the new rules—it comes down to purpose.
“A call to administer an existing transaction, arrange delivery, resolve an account or complaint, provide support or perform a contractual obligation is not automatically direct marketing,” it said.
However, the guidelines also specify that these kinds of calls could become direct marketing calls if the business tries to on-sell or pitch products at the end of such a call.
“A call made to resolve an account query may be permissible, but an unsolicited sales pitch added to that call is direct marketing and must comply with the CPA, the Opt-Out Regulations and applicable privacy law,” the NCC said.
The NCC said that using a third party—such as a call centre or marketing agency—also does not remove the direct marketer’s compliance responsibility.
“The business should ensure that its service providers comply with the CPA and Regulations and that required registration and cleansing arrangements are in place.”
Political parties and charities
The guidelines also address questions around political parties and charities cold-calling consumers for donations.
The NCC said that, while political campaigning for votes, or charities calling to educate or inform, does not ordinarily constitute “direct marketing”, things change when money gets involved.
For political parties, soliciting consumers for political support is not direct marketing, as the purpose is not to promote goods or services for a fee.
However, where a political organisation solicits donations from individuals, that communication may constitute direct marketing and may therefore fall within the Opt-Out Registry regime.
A similar stance is held by non-profit organisations, such as charities.
The NCC said that NPOs aren’t automatically excluded from the opt-out registry just because they are a non-profit.
An NPO would be regarded as a direct marketer where it approaches persons, including by telephone, SMS, email or other covered means, for the purpose of requesting a donation.
However, an NPO would generally not be regarded as a direct marketer where its communication is purely for administrative, informational, educational, or awareness-related purposes, it said.
Of course, if this is followed up by a request for donations, the NPO would then find itself under the direct marketing label.
“The CPA’s definition of direct marketing expressly includes a request for a donation,” it said.
For NPOs and political parties, the donation solicitation caveat applies only to individuals with an annual turnover of less than R2 million.
The NCC said that non-compliance with the regulations may lead to a complaint being lodged with the commission against a direct marketer.
This would lead to investigations, compliance notices, referrals to the National Consumer Tribunal and possible penalties against the business or organisation.
“In serious cases, contraveners may face criminal prosecution. Convicted persons may be fined or imprisoned for a period not exceeding 12 months under the CPA,” it said.
“Complaints will first be investigated before a compliance notice or a referral application to impose a penalty is made. Compliance responsibility extends to agencies, franchises and branches.”
The draft guidelines are available below. Stakeholders have 15 days to make submissions:
- In writing to: National Consumer Commission, 01 Dr Lategan Road, Block C, Groenkloof, Pretoria
- Emailing: [email protected] and [email protected]
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