So if anyone has ever wondered about ordering whisky from overseas, turns out it's not that bad. You are allowed to bring in a certain amount of spirits for personal consumption. Duties are calculated on ABV and volume, plus they slap VAT on top.
Some tips and experiences when ordering from Laphroaig:
1) Pay using paypal
2) They used DHL to send the package. Tubes were inside heavy duty tube shaped bubble wrap and boxed. Really sturdy.
3) They never sent me a tracking number, so you have to mail them and ask
4) If you have decent spam filtering check your spam folder for correspondence because their SPF doesn't match their sending server.
5) Package got stuck in customs because there was no itemized invoice included. Customs wants a line item of each bottle showing ABV and cost. Laphroaig eventually sent me this in email.
6) DHL customs can be pretty slack, so make sure you follow-up after paying duties and their processing fee.
7) I wanted to change my shipping address from home to work, despite jumping through the required hoops and filling in the forms they still delivered to my home address, so don't bother if you ever consider change of destination.
Edit: Details on importing for personal consumption:
http://www.gov.za/services/import-liquor/import-exemption-liquor