Temu and the Consumer Protection Act?

I have been buying quite a few items on Temu in the last few months, small items like cell phone charger cables, bathroom accessories, and USB car chargers. I was happy with my purchases, so whenever I needed something, I would look for it on Temu.

UNTIL I bought some more technically involved items.

First, I bought a USB-to-Ethernet adapter set (RJ45 network extension cable). On the ad, it claimed to be able to handle USB 2.0 Video, which is why I bought it, to extend a cable for a webcam. By the time I had all the moving parts together to test it, it was long past the return date, so I had to write it off as a cheap mistake. The ad on Temu for this product has now changed; it no longer shows pictures of cameras, but I have screenshots. My one-star review is the only real review on this product; the rest are ****. (https://share.temu.com/uDT2iLZjxmB)

Next, I bought 2 x "200A MPPT Solar Charge Controllers" and a "2800W Peak Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter" to make a small solar UPS. They took forever to arrive and arrived literally on the last day of the delivery window. Much to my horror and disgust, when testing these items out within the window of returning them this time, they were all overstated and falsely advertised!

The 2 x "200A MPPT Solar Charge Controllers" are not Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT); they are actually Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) solar regulators and will not handle anything close to 200A. What this means is that if you have solar panels, as I have, that are more than 12v, like 42v, the solar controller will only use a small portion of your panel and waste the rest. MPPT has meaning, so this is deliberately misleading information to sell junk. Link to the item: https://share.temu.com/WgtHc1I923B

The 2800W Peak Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter claimed to have a 1000w contimous powere rating. Sadly, it could not run one fridge that is less than 1000w, it also does not show the battery level, it stays at 100% till the inverter shuts off with a dead battery. Link to the inverter no longer available, supposedly sold out, so here is a link to the purchase: https://share.temu.com/pP0V1GQHSLB

Obviously upset by this, I requested a refund and packaged the items back in their original packaging with bubble wrap around to make sure it gets back to Temu safely.

Here is the kicker, though! Temu claims the value of the items sold to me was at "50% off." When calculating the import tax, they charge me at the supposed "full value" of the items, and with the refund do not pay back the import tax.

Temu claims that I must ask SARS for the import tax back.

So logically, how can I ask SARS for a refund on the import tax that was paid by the courier Temu used? How can SARS give a refund on the import tax for an item that was imported and is in the Temu warehouse in South Africa?

Temu customer support is worse than Temu AI, which just keeps reiterating the same statements over and over again. Temu falsely and *****ulently advertises items that do not do what they claim, then, when I ask for a refund, does not refund the massively overpriced import tax on items they retain in the country at my expense.

I am R333.22 out of pocket on the import tax alone for this one purchase of items that Temu falsely advertised. Now consider how much time I have lost by waiting for these items, and how much time I have lost trying to get a refund, and having to write this warning for my fellow consumers, so that they are aware of the traps with Temu.

Does the Consumer Protection Act not apply to all businesses doing business in South Africa? Why is Temu exempt?

PS. To Date, I have not received a single "Free Gift" from Temu, that is just another devious marketing tactic to get you to buy more junk form there site.