Taxes on imports to South Africa

I recently bought a few products from china and imported it straight to south africa. however i had to pay an extra fee to collect the items, after paying a fair amount for postage. Is this standard procedure or is there a way of getting around this?

Its possible your being charged a duty fee by customs in that country.

You need to pay vat, duty and sometimes ad volurum duty.

For electronic goods that plug into the mains supply you need a letter of authority and need to pay a levy to the SABS in addition to above taxes

You can under declare the goods -- but it will come back to bite you sooner than later.

After years of importing we recognize that you need to work it in as a cost of purchase!