My family and I are travelling to South Africa in December. Through some colleague's recommendations, I've been corresponding with a travel agency in South Africa to arrange a full tour of Cape Town, Joburg, Kruger, Soweto, etc.

The itinerary looks good, but the agency is asking for 50% of the tour cost to be paid by wire transfer immediately, with the remainder to be paid within a month prior to arrival.

I found out recently that the agency hasn't been registered with the local tourism board since 2009. I wrote to the tourism board to check and their response confirmed the agency's de-registration and suspected the agency didn't want to continue paying the registration fee.

Questions: Is it common for travel agencies to cease registration with the local tourism board due to the need to pay registration fees? What are the implications if I book with an agency that isn't registered? I thought of protecting against non-delivery of the tour services as promised by paying using a credit card (even offering to bear any credit card surcharge) but the agency wouldn't allow that and insisted on cash payment only - is this also common for South African travel agencies?

I'm unfamiliar with the practices in South Africa; it's our first trip, hence appreciate any clarification.