First, Wise is not your bank. It's a dodgy money-transmitter business.
Second, never keep a balance in Wise. Just use it for transfers. It's good for US/EU since transfers are close to instant. If they are instant in South Africa, you should be able to make a transfer using SEPA, then to a South African bank. Rinse and repeat so you don't get $40k stuck.
One thing I noticed about these fintech companies is that they won't ban you if you don't keep a balance. I had lots of troubles with freezing funds with other fintechs (ie: PayPal, Skrill, etc..) but that stopped once I stopped having a balance with them. That is interesting, because my flow with them now is "$xxx received, $xxx sent". Which should, theoretically, trigger a money laundering alert.
I am biased to say, at this point, that they are maliciously freezing money but I do not have any proof of that at the moment.
Second, never keep a balance in Wise. Just use it for transfers. It's good for US/EU since transfers are close to instant. If they are instant in South Africa, you should be able to make a transfer using SEPA, then to a South African bank. Rinse and repeat so you don't get $40k stuck.
One thing I noticed about these fintech companies is that they won't ban you if you don't keep a balance. I had lots of troubles with freezing funds with other fintechs (ie: PayPal, Skrill, etc..) but that stopped once I stopped having a balance with them. That is interesting, because my flow with them now is "$xxx received, $xxx sent". Which should, theoretically, trigger a money laundering alert.
I am biased to say, at this point, that they are maliciously freezing money but I do not have any proof of that at the moment.