Customs - Tariff Book Last updated: 9 May 2025

foods or beverages (such as dietetic, diabetic or fortified foods, food supplements, tonic beverages and mineral waters) (excluding nutritional preparations for intravenous administration) (Section IV);

products, such as tablets, chewing gum or patches (transdermal systems), containing nicotine and intended to assist tobacco use cessation (heading 24.04);

plasters specially calcined or finely ground for use in dentistry (heading 25.20);

aqueous distillates or aqueous solutions of essential oils, suitable for medicinal uses (heading 33.01);

preparations of headings 33.03 to 33.07, even if they have therapeutic or prophylactic properties;

soap or other products of heading 34.01 containing added medicaments;

preparations with a basis of plaster for use in dentistry (heading 34.07);

blood albumin not prepared for therapeutic or prophylactic uses (heading 35.02); or

diagnostic reagents of heading 38.22.

as unmixed products:

as products which have been mixed:

sterile surgical catgut, similar sterile suture materials (including sterile absorbable surgical or dental yarns) and sterile tissue adhesives for surgical wound closure;

sterile laminaria and sterile laminaria tents;

sterile absorbable surgical or dental haemostatics; sterile surgical or dental adhesion barriers, whether or not absorbable;

opacifying preparations for X-ray examinations and diagnostic reagents designed to be administered to the patient, being unmixed products put up in measured doses or products consisting of two or more ingredients which have been mixed together for such uses;

placebos and blinded (or double-blinded) clinical trial kits for use in recognised clinical trials, put up in measured doses, even if they might contain active medicaments.

dental cements and other dental fillings; bone reconstruction cements;

first-aid boxes and kits;

chemical contraceptive preparations based on hormones, on other products of heading 29.37 or on spermicides;

gel preparations designed to be used in human or veterinary medicine as a lubricant for parts of the body for surgical operations or physical examinations or as a coupling agent between the body and medical instruments;

waste pharmaceuticals, that is, pharmaceutical products which are unfit for their original intended purpose due to, for example, expiry of shelf life; and

appliances identifiable for ostomy use, that is, colostomy, ileostomy and urostomy pouches cut to shape and their adhesive wafers or faceplates.

As unmixed products, pure products, whether or not containing impurities;

As products which have been mixed:

Medicaments for veterinarian use shall comply with section 16 of the Fertilizer, Farm Feeds, Agricultural Remedies and Stock Remedies Act No. 36 of 1947.

the specific diseases, ailments or their symptoms for which the product is to be used;

the concentration of active substance or substances contained therein;

dosage; and

mode of application. In the case of preparations based on vitamins, minerals, essential amino-acids or fatty acids, the level of one of these substances per recommended daily dose indicated on the label must be significantly higher than the recommended daily allowance to maintain general health or well-being.

certificate of registration of the product as a medicine;

licence permitting import of the product as a medicine; or

letter of confirmation of the status of the product as a medicine, from and verifiable by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority.