There seems to be some really bad stuff going on with EF and ex-JNB RTW fares. For the most popular fares, EF's fare quotes for US$ and Euros are off by more than $1000. The South African Rand (ZAR) price is accurate for some of those fares where the US$ price is way off, but on some other fares the ZAR price is non-existent. (The ZAR price is key for an ex-JNB RTW. In order to take advantage of the very low price for an ex-JNB RTW, the ticket must be issued in South Africa and priced in ZAR.)

Prime example is the OneWorld Explorer ticket. Ask EF for the price of a 5-continent RTW in business class (DONE5, on BA) in US$, and EF tells you it's US$4,410, a really good price! Problem is, EF is wrong: the actual price in South African Rand, which EF correctly quotes, is 67880 ZAR -- and at today's exchange rate, that's $5,613. Still a good price, but nowhere near the $4,410 that EF quotes. (And, of course, the actual price you pay is the base fare plus lots and lots of additional charges, but I'm only discussing the base fare in this post.)

The problem is similar for a 4-continent first class ticket (AONE4): EF says it's US$6,270. But if you ask for the quote in Rand, EF (again correctly) quotes 96500 ZAR, which is actually US$7,981. Things get really weird for some fares: EF says that an AONE5 costs US$7,213 or 0 ZAR. (Hint: neither is correct.)

Star Alliance ex-JNB RTW fares have their own problems. Ask for a RTW price in ZAR in either business or first (using LH), and EF tells you that all the fares are 0 ZAR. The US$ fares seem to be appropriate (e.g., US$7,345 for a CRWSTAR1), but I don't know if they're in fact correct.

The whole thing seems really odd. I was a software designer much of my professional life, and the obvious way (to me) of showing the US$ price would be to get the source price (ZAR) and convert to US$ by today's exchange rate. That doesn't seem to be the case here.