South Africans spent an estimated R10 billion ($610 million) on Temu and Shein, online marketplaces, in 2025. The problem, according to regulators, is that almost none of that money came with the consumer protections that apply when you buy from a local retailer.
The South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) Financial Surveillance Department (FinSurv) has now published a draft framework for how payment aggregators—the companies that process card payments from South Africans to offshore platforms—must operate. Under the new rules, aggregators must register as local South African companies, partner with an authorised dealer bank, and submit each partnership for FinSurv approval before processing payments.
The middleman that routes your Temu payment out of South Africa now needs to be a formal, locally registered, bank-partnered entity that FinSurv can see and supervise.
The payment framework is one piece of a broader regulatory push. Separately, the National Consumer Commission (NCC) and Consumer Goods and Services Ombud (CGSO) have proposed requiring offshore platforms to appoint local representatives in South Africa, which would give consumers an actual local point of contact for complaints about non-delivery or defective goods.
Currently, when a Temu order goes wrong, the platform has no local office to pursue. The Ecommerce Forum of South Africa (EFSA), which represents local online retailers, has argued that offshore platforms exploit import tax loopholes and undercut domestic businesses on price without bearing the same compliance costs, a complaint that has intensified since Amazon launched its dedicated South African marketplace in 2024.
Temu and Shein have both denied wrongdoing and say they comply with local laws. The SARB’s draft framework is still open for comment, allowing the public, including consumers, associations, and operators to shape provisions that could soon become law in how offshore payments work.