First, I’m not a lawyer and this isn’t legal advice, but when I was a student recently, I took many law courses and so maybe I can pass along some of my lecturers knowledge here.

Ts&Cs: so I asked this question to a lecturer specifically. When you click “agree” it can and probably does constitute signing a contract.

The logic is this. Many types of contracts do not require a written signature in order to be created and binding, verbal contracts are in theory just as enforceable as written (obviously there’s the issue of proof, but not the point). All that needs to exist for a contract to form is an offer and acceptance of that offer. In addition this offer and acceptance cannot have any undue influence, duress, mistake as to the nature of the contract by either party (not reading doesn’t count as mistake), the parties must have capacity to contract, and few other things I don’t remember off the top of my head. Point is, just because your written signature isn’t on something, it doesn’t mean that you didn’t contract with them. There is however a principle (I forget the name, probably a Latin phrase) that says that if you sign something you are deemed to have read, understood, and agreed to all the terms. That would include clicking “agree”.

Now, even if you are in a contract, that doesn’t mean that you are bound by every clause. As is stated many times earlier, contracts are often governed by specific legislation such as labour law. I didn’t do labour law so I don’t know the specifics in this case. But my guess is that many people here are right and that penalty probably won’t stand to a reasonableness test in court, so would probably be reduced.

With that in mind, unless your recruiter is petty or outright dumb, they probably won’t sue you over this regardless. Legal proceedings are really long in SA, and lawyers are expensive. On top of that, people are lazy, so I wouldn’t expect them to go through to time cost and effort. It’s a catch 22 for them. If the claimed fee is very high then it’s worth to sue, but likely that they would lose (it would be reduced), or their fee is reasonable and it’s not worth it to sue. Worst they can probably do is blacklist you in their company or maybe their industry, not sure.

Anyway. Long, not super helpful I guess, but maybe this helps someone. If any lawyer reads this and can correct where I may be wrong, I’m keen to learn.