On several occasions, tallit and tzitzit customers living in South Africa have asked us about dealing with the steep duties imposed by their country's customs bureau.

Unfortunately in a few cases, customers placed an order and found out the hard way when they received a bill from South Africa customs.

As per our stated policy, we use commercial shippers and state the correct amount on the customs declaration section of the shipping label. 

However, I've noticed that recently a number of customers from Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and other parts of South Africa have placed an order and had the tallit or tzitzit sent to a brother in Rechovot or an uncle in Herzliya or a sister in Haifa. I don't know how they arrange to take it from there, but I'm sure there are ways. 

Note that when an order is not sent abroad, we are required to charge Israel's 17% VAT charge. But this is certainly lower than the taxation levied by South Africa, and perhaps some customers are not necessarily opposed to adding a bit of money that goes to Israel coffers.