UPDATE 10.02.2022: Not sure when but it looks like they dropped the price to R1299 somewhere along the line.
I received the following from Microsoft on the 5th February 2020 – this is South African pricing
Now that they have converted people to monthly subscriptions time to rip them off?! a 17% increase from R1199 to R1399, really Bill, you need “more”
You can buy 1 year licenses from online retailers and add a year at a time to your account.