Government steps up interventions on 17bn spam calls

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JIMMY MOYAHA: We know the pain that comes with unwanted telemarketers and the calls they have been making. According to the latest data by Truecaller, telemarketers made about 17 billion spam calls to consumers in the first half of 2026 alone.

The government of South Africa has now moved forward with some interesting measures to curb this. From its perspective, a National Opt-Out Registry system has been developed. We’re going to find out more about that particular system tomorrow [Wednesday 7 October], when the minister of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition announces how government intends to roll it out.

For now we’re going to take a closer look at it with one of the partners that will be overseeing this once it has been officially launched. This is the National Consumer Commission [NCC], of course. We’ve spoken to them in the past about this particular matter, and we’re going to take a look at the latest interventions.

I’m joined on the line by the spokesperson at the National Consumer Commission, Phetho Ntaba, to take a look at this and see what to make of it. Phetho, lovely having you back on the show. Thanks so much for taking the time.

The last time we spoke about this there was a big focus on how these unwanted calls have encroached on things like the Protection of Personal Information Act [Popia], and how the calls encroach on the consumer’s rights to opt out of these conversations.

We now have an intervention that has been in the works for quite some time. Tell us more about this registry system and how it would be intended to work.

PHETHO NTABA: Thank you so much, Jimmy. Yes, it’s been a long time coming. We started working on the register – I think around 2017, thereabouts – when we went out on a study just to check what other countries are doing.

We are here now. We have built the system for South African consumers, but looking at best practices internationally. Tomorrow, October 6, 2026, the minister will be announcing the system, the roll-out plan and what is expected.

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So there have been quite a number of developments, Jimmy, with the system; in particular where, for us to be able to be given the opportunity or the mandate to run the system, the minister had to gazette regulations – firstly for public comment, and then gazetted or promulgated in April 2026.

They are giving the NCC the right to administer the Opt-Out Registry, where direct marketers, Jimmy, are expected to register to basically announce ‘Hey, we are here, we are running the business in this particular industry’.

And consumers on the other side also have to register.

Once we have direct marketers in the system, that’s where you and I will go in again and enact our options to say ‘I don’t want to receive communication from these particular direct marketers’ or ‘I still prefer to receive one form of communication – either email or SMS’ – and from the entire industry you can block everyone. So you get those flexibilities.

We are really excited. We see consumers registering profiles. We see direct marketers who want to comply with the law, with the Consumer Protection Act [CPA]– but also with the Popi Act, as you mentioned earlier – because the two laws exist to complement each other.

So where you don’t have an opt-out as a consumer, they can’t use or share your information willy-nilly. They still need to comply with the information regulator’s Popia.

But where you have opted out, they must comply with the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Phetho, can we take a look at the measures that have been put in place for those that do not comply?

We know that from a National Consumer Commission perspective, your primary role is to protect consumers, especially in times where they are unable to protect themselves. Can we take a look at some of the measures?

I know you and I touched on some of them when we were still in the discussion phase, but [please explain] some of the measures that would be put in place in the event that marketers do not comply, do not register, or register and still do not comply with what is being put in place here.

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PHETHO NTABA: Register and not comply, or do not register at all – that would be that they would have contravened the Consumer Protection Act.

And in that, it means that they are running the risk of calling a consumer who would have opted out from those direct marketers, or from that particular direct marketer.

So when you look at the Consumer Protection Act there are quite a number of things or remedies that you can actually put out to say to a direct marketer ‘desist’ – as in ‘we are giving a compliance notice’. Or we say to the direct marketer ‘We’re investigating, we’re taking the matter to the Tribunal – or negotiate outside the Tribunal’.

Now, there’s also this element of a compliance notice that I think from time to time suppliers in general who don’t comply either don’t understand, or just don’t want to.

The CPA, Jimmy, empowers the NCC to institute criminal charges against that particular supplier.

Those are the things that would be the last resort – even generally under the Consumer Protection Act. That’s the last resort, because our interest is redressing what consumers would have complained about.

But insofar as this one is concerned, it’s everything that is provided for – a compliance notice after investigation, taking the matter to the tribunal, or settling outside the tribunal. The last resort would be those criminal charges.

So we’ve got those powers, as far as the act is concerned, to force direct marketers or suppliers to comply with the law.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Phetho, before I let you go, can you share with us where it is that consumers and marketers can officially register for this particular registry? I have the details on my part, on my side, from the NCC’s website, but can you give us those exact details where consumers can register and marketers can register alike?

PHETHO NTABA: Certainly, Jimmy. You go to the NCC website.

On your top right corner, you will see eServices & OORS, which stands for Opt-Out Registry System.

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Once you click there, that page will take you to the portal itself. As a consumer, you will click on ‘New consumer’; as a direct marketer, you will click on ‘New direct marketer’.

Accept the terms and conditions, and then you populate your information. In less than three minutes you will be done with creating your profile.

We’ve made it easier as well, Jimmy, to follow concerns or issues that were raised by role-players. Now when you look at what was promulgated in April versus the [new] system, the electronic version of the form, there are some changes where we had to remove certain information to avoid over-processing, and just make it easier.

Where information is not mandatory, we just removed that information, especially on the side of the direct marketer. On the consumer side as well we’ve done that.

So we believe it’s an easy-to-use system, but very soon we will be uploading information just to make it easier for consumers as well as direct marketers on our website to get that information before even interacting with the portal.

JIMMY MOYAHA: The National Consumer Commission has the Opt-Out Registry live and ready to go. This is, of course, going to be explained in more detail tomorrow by the minister of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition as to how the government intends to roll this out.

For now though, we’ll leave this particular conversation on that note. The spokesperson at the National Consumer Commission, Phetho Ntaba, joined us to look at the Opt-Out Registry for marketing purposes and how that will protect consumers from unwanted spam calls.

For those interested, I will put up the link to the portal once we put up this particular conversation as a podcast as well, in case anybody wants to register from that perspective.

You can access the portal here.

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