GoTyme Bank, the digital challenger formerly known as TymeBank, is calling on South Africa's banking industry to stop charging fees on instant payments. GoTyme has offered free PayShap transfers up to R5,000 since 2023, and argues the rest of the sector can afford to do the same.

PayShap, the national instant-payment rail, has been live since 2023, yet several banks still charge a fee on a transfer that settles in seconds.

The argument is about strategic choice, not raw cost. GoTyme's managing executive for digital experience, Marin Cundall, is clear that the underlying infrastructure does carry a cost, but says a modern, efficient bank can choose not to pass every cost to the customer, and that its digital-first model gives it more room to absorb that than a bank running branches.

The fee bites hardest on small transactions, where a flat charge is a large share of a lunch payment or a small transfer to family, and on small businesses, where instant settlement changes the cash cycle. A plumber can confirm payment before leaving the job, a spaza shop can verify money landed before handing over goods, and an entrepreneur paid immediately can restock the same day rather than waiting up to three days. GoTyme points to Brazil's Pix and India's UPI as proof of what happens when instant payments are treated as public infrastructure rather than a premium feature.

Notably, CEO Cheslyn Jacobs frames charging people to move their own money as a choice, and Cundall is careful not to overclaim, saying GoTyme has not yet measured whether free instant payments have actually cut cash usage or improved SME cash flow.

TechCabal reported GoTyme's position and Cundall's point that settlement periods of up to three days should no longer be treated as normal. The Reserve Bank oversees PayShap, which was built by BankservAfrica, now PayInc, with the banking industry. A 2026 World Bank report finds faster payments accelerate liquidity by making funds available immediately for stock, wages and other expenses.

South Africa spent years and considerable money building instant payments, and the technology works. What has not changed is that some banks still treat using it as a premium. This is the consumer-facing edge of the same shift we covered when the country handed payment-system governance to the Reserve Bank and PayInc, ending decades of the banks setting the rules among themselves.

GoTyme is a challenger with an obvious commercial interest in making fees the battleground, since free transfers are cheaper to offer without a branch network, so read the call as competitive positioning as much as principle.

But the underlying point holds: when the rail is national infrastructure and settlement is instant, a per-transfer fee looks less like a cost recovery and more like a margin the incumbents are protecting.

Watch whether the reformed payments framework, which is meant to widen access for non-banks, pushes those fees down faster than any bank would choose to on its own.

You might also like our piece on the shake-up of SA's payment-system governance, how Capitec dropped Bank from its name as it broadens beyond banking, and how TurnStay is attacking cross-border card fees.

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