I know sweetwater dont ship to SA

There are no guarantees of a perfect fit with pickguards. Even if you get a US Fender pickguard for a US Fender, chances are still good you'll have to relocate a couple of screws. Closest bet is to get a pickguard custom made by someone like Pickguardian, which works out pretty expensive. Otherwise just get any decent pickguard from Stewmac, LMII Acmeguitarworks or any number of other online guitar parts specialists and relocate the screws where necessary.

easiest thing to do, go onto Fender.com

click on "support"

click on "service diagrams'

look down the list for your model guitar (there's a few for highway1)

click on "download"

that will open the parts number list and diagram for your guitar, and it will give you the exact Fender part number you need to buy.

no mess, no fuss, just 'click click' ?

I've done quite a few strat pickguard changes, and I've been very impressed with the quality and fit of the Mighty Mites, which are easily available locally.

Thanks for the advice, appreciated.
I will give it some more thought before I decide what to do.