Last updated on 25 September 2026.
This is a living article. It tracks instruments that are not yet final. Each item shows where it sits in its lifecycle and what to watch for next. Obligations that already carry a fixed date live in the companion article, "The South African OHS Compliance Calendar: Every Date That Matters". When an item on this page acquires a date, it moves there.
In brief
Several changes that will affect South African employers are still in motion, with no fixed date attached to any of them: the Draft Construction Regulations 2024, the broader OHS reform toward a management system model, the phased COIDA rollout, the inspectorate expansion, the Employment Services Amendment Bill, and the ISO 45001:2027 revision. None is settled, but all point the same way, toward provable systems and psychosocial risk. The obligations that carry a date, chiefly the repeal of the Environmental Regulations for Workplaces 1987 and the Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Regulations 2003, which took effect on 06 Sep 2026, are tracked in the companion article, "The South African OHS Compliance Calendar: Every Date That Matters".
South Africa
Moved to the Compliance Calendar, and now in force. The Physical Agents Regulations 2024 and Noise Exposure Regulations 2024 carried a fixed date, 06 Sep 2026, on which the Environmental Regulations for Workplaces 1987 and the Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Regulations 2003 were repealed in their entirety. That date has passed and the new instruments now stand alone, so the item and its duties are tracked in the Compliance Calendar rather than here. [20][21][22] One aspect remains genuinely in motion and stays on this page: the accompanying Notice 5954 amending the General Safety Regulations was described by ENSafrica as unclear and contradictory, and in its view should be withdrawn and re-issued, so the General Safety Regulations position is less settled than the two main instruments. Watch for a corrected notice or departmental guidance. [20]
Draft Construction Regulations 2024. Status: Draft. Gazetted 12 Mar 2025 for 90 day public comment, which closed 10 Jun 2025. They will repeal the 2014 Construction Regulations and revise the definitions of agent, client and contractor along with health and safety officer appointment rules. [1] Awaiting final gazette. Watch for the final text, the commencement date, and any change to officer appointment thresholds.
OHS reform toward a management system. Status: Draft Bill, long pending, not yet before Parliament. The instrument here is the Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Bill, 2020, whose explanatory summary was gazetted on 14 May 2021 in Government Gazette 44572, and on which public comment opened on 21 May 2021 and closed on 31 July 2021. [26][27] The Bill has not since been introduced to Parliament or enacted, and the copy in the Department of Employment and Labour Proposed Amendment Bills folder is that same 2020 Bill rather than a new instrument. The Bill's own explanatory summary confirms its direction: it would move employers from a written policy to a formal, evidenced health and safety management system, allow inspectors to issue direct administrative fines under a penalty schedule rather than rely on criminal prosecution, and give workers a right to withhold labour from dangerous work without victimisation. [26] A caution on dates: several 2026 consultancy articles present this as a fresh 2026 reform with a current comment window, but the comment period closed in 2021 and there is no open comment window today. [2] Watch for an actual introduction to Parliament, a Portfolio Committee timetable, and any re-publication of an updated Bill.
COIDA rollout. Status: In force, phased, with the operational detail still settling. Core provisions commenced 23 Jan 2026, with further dates of 01 Feb and 01 Apr 2026, and rehabilitation regulations effective 06 Mar 2026. [3][4] What is still in motion is the operational layer around the Act rather than the Act itself: Compensation Fund operational notices, changes to the Return of Earnings and Letter of Good Standing processes, and the list of newly recognised occupational diseases. Multiple sources confirm that a Confirmation of Employer Registration Details form is now compulsory, and that a submission without it is treated as incomplete. [14][15] Watch for the Fund's next operational notices and for the disease schedule. The dated parts of COIDA, the annual Return of Earnings season and the 7 day incident reporting deadline, are tracked in the Compliance Calendar, where the season itself now rests on the Acting Compensation Commissioner's own gazette notice. [13][15][16]
Employment Services Amendment Bill [B16-2026]. Status: Bill before Parliament. Introduced in the National Assembly on 29 May 2026 (Bill version B16-2026 dated 01 June 2026), with a Portfolio Committee workshop on the policy and legislative implications of labour migration held on 24 Jun 2026. [23] On 05 Aug 2026 the Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour, chaired by Mr Boyce Maneli, received the Department of Employment and Labour's formal briefing on the Bill and resolved to invite written public submissions, and that window has now opened and carries a firm date: the committee called for written public input on 18 Sep 2026, with submissions closing on Friday 06 Nov 2026 at 16h00, addressed to Mr Zolani Sakasa at [email protected]. [28][30][31] That deadline is a dated obligation and is therefore tracked in the companion Compliance Calendar; the Bill itself stays on this page because the instrument is still in motion and its passage carries no date at all. The Bill would amend the Employment Services Act of 2014 to require an employer, before recruiting a foreign national, to satisfy itself in a prescribed manner that no suitably qualified South African citizen, permanent resident, refugee or asylum seeker is available, and it provides for Labour Court fines of up to R100,000 per worker for a first offence, R200,000 for a repeat offence within three years, and up to R1 million or 10 percent of annual turnover for multiple contraventions. It applies to all employers, including private households. [18] One provision deserves attention from safety practitioners specifically, because it changes who may appear at the gate. The Bill would expand the powers of labour inspectors appointed under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, and provides for an agreement between the Minister of Home Affairs and the Minister of Employment and Labour under which designated labour inspectors could also enforce section 38 of the Immigration Act 13 of 2002. [29] If enacted, the person who inspects a workplace for labour and health and safety compliance and the person who checks immigration status may increasingly be the same official on the same visit. None of this is yet law: the Bill must still pass committee scrutiny, public participation and both houses before assent, and advisers have had to correct rumours that penalties took effect on 30 Jun 2026. [19] A further provision was reported when comment opened, and it is new to this page: the Bill would empower the Minister to set maximum employment quotas for foreign nationals by economic sector, occupational category or region, with employers of fewer than 10 employees excluded from the quota provisions as currently drafted. [31] Watch for the committee's handling of submissions after 06 Nov 2026, changes to the fine structure, the sectors named first under the quota power, and the regulations that will prescribe how the labour market test must be done.
Inspectorate expansion. Status: In progress. The plan grows inspectors from roughly 2,000 to 20,000, with around R5 billion over the medium term and a first wave of 10,000 posts. [5][6] Update, 01 Jul 2026: the phased recruitment of the 10,000 additional permanent inspectors was reported to be starting around June 2026, described as the first large-scale inspectorate recruitment since 1994, lifting a current inspectorate of about 2,300 officers. This is distinct from the separate Project 20K internship programme with which it is often confused. [17] Watch for regional rollout, the risk profiling criteria, and sector targeting.
ISO
ISO 45001 revision. Status: Draft, publication expected 2027. The direction is set toward psychosocial risk and mental health, climate change, digitalisation and AI supported processes, and stronger worker participation, with a standard three-year transition expected after publication. [7][8] Watch for the progress of ISO/DIS 45001, confirmation of the publication date, and the final transition window. [9] The Draft International Standard ballot has now closed: the twelve-week ballot opened on 16 Jun 2026 and ISO recorded close of voting on 09 Sep 2026, a dated event tracked in the Compliance Calendar. [9] The next lifecycle step to watch is whether the draft is approved for registration as a Final Draft International Standard. With the ballot shut, the structure and intent of the standard are now largely settled. Publication is still expected mid 2027, with a three-year transition after that. [11][12]
ISO 45003. Status: Published and IN SYSTEMATIC REVIEW, with the review ballot now closed and the outcome outstanding. This entry has tracked ISO 45003 as settled background since this page was written, and that is no longer the right description. ISO 45003:2021, "Occupational health and safety management, Psychological health and safety at work, Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks", was published on 08 Jun 2021 and entered its five-yearly systematic review at stage 90.20 on 15 Apr 2026. The catalogue lifecycle was read in full on 25 Sep 2026 and the standard has since moved to stage 90.60, close of review, dated 03 Sep 2026. [32] What that means precisely is that the review ballot has shut and the decision has not yet been recorded: the three outcomes available are confirmation of the existing edition (stage 90.93), a decision to revise it (stage 90.92), or withdrawal (stage 95.99), and none of them carries a date on the record yet. So the guidance standard that the market treats as the fixed reference point for psychosocial risk is currently an instrument in motion, which is why it now sits on this page as a tracked item rather than as background. Separately from its lifecycle, adoption continues to grow and the standard now appears in dedicated training. [10] The evidence base behind it hardened in 2026: the International Labour Organization devoted World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2026 to the psychosocial working environment, linking psychosocial risk factors to more than 840,000 deaths a year worldwide through cardiovascular disease and mental disorders. [24] Independent reporting of the same ILO report puts the economic cost at about 1.37 percent of global GDP a year and finds that 23 percent of workers have experienced violence or harassment. [25] Watch, in order of how hard a signal each one is: the outcome of the 45003 systematic review on the catalogue record at standard 64283, which is a single field and the only thing that will settle whether a revision is coming [32]; how the 45001 revision formally references psychosocial management; and any South African instrument that gives psychosocial risk a home of its own, because at present the duty sits in the general duty in section 8 of the OHS Act and nowhere else. A house rule already applies to the first of these and is restated here so it is not re-derived: for any ISO stage transition the operative record is the catalogue lifecycle for that standard, never a committee news page and never a certification body restating it. The rule now has a second limb, learned on 25 Sep 2026: it must be applied to each standard's OWN catalogue page. A weekly check that reads only standard 89698 will report ISO 45001 correctly and say nothing at all about 45003, which is how a stage transition dated 03 Sep 2026 was recorded as "unchanged" on 21 and 23 Sep 2026.
GRC Shop view
Nothing on this page has a date, and that is the point: these are the changes an employer cannot diarise, only prepare for. Of them, the Draft Construction Regulations and the broader OHS reform are the two most likely to change client obligations, and both point toward more named appointments, more competence requirements, and more provable system evidence. We expect psychosocial risk to be the single biggest new compliance theme, and we now expect it to arrive through certification and through the general duty in section 8 well before it arrives through a dedicated regulation. This is our forecast, clearly marked as opinion, and we will revise it as each text is published. For what is already fixed and diarised, see the Compliance Calendar.
Abbreviations
- AI: artificial intelligence
- COIDA: Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act
- DIS: Draft International Standard
- ISO: International Organization for Standardization
- MTEF: Medium-Term Expenditure Framework
- OHS: Occupational Health and Safety
- OMP: Occupational Medicine Practitioner
- ROE: Return of Earnings
References
The sources below are external links to third-party websites. We link only to publicly accessible pages and check periodically that the links still work.
[1] ENSafrica, "OHASA: Public Comments on the Draft Construction Regulations 2024", Mar 2025. https://www.ensafrica.com/news/detail/9938/south-africa-occupational-health-and-safety-a
[2] ComplianceHub, "OHS Law in 2026: The End of Paper Safety", 2026. https://www.compliancehub.co.za/post/ohs-law-in-2026-the-end-of-paper-safety
[3] Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, "COIDA Amendments now in force: A new era for workplace injury compensation", 12 Mar 2026. https://www.cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com/en/news/publications/2026/South-Africa/Employment-Law/employment-law-alert-12-march-2026-coida-amendments-now-in-force-a-new-era-for-workplace-injury-compensation-in-south-africa
[4] Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, "New COIDA Regulations now published: Rehabilitation Framework takes shape", 12 Mar 2026. https://www.cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com/en/news/publications/2026/South-Africa/Employment-Law/employment-law-alert-12-march-new-coida-regulations-now-published-rehabilitation-framework-takes-shape
[5] TimesLive, "Labour inspectorate: Plan is to grow team from 2,000 to 20,000", 02 Oct 2024. https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2024-10-02-labour-inspectorate-plan-is-to-grow-team-from-2000-to-20000/
[6] Xinhua, "South Africa to recruit 20,000 inspectors to crack down on non-compliance", 11 Feb 2025. https://english.news.cn/20250211/83c20213a48745719e5ef459b638f96c/c.html
[7] Smithers, "ISO 45001 News: Preparing for the Possible 2027 Standard Revision", Jun 2026. https://www.smithers.com/resources/2026/june/iso-45001-news-possible-2027-standard-revision
[8] Bureau Veritas, "ISO 45001: Key Updates in the 2027 Edition", 2026. https://www.bureauveritas.ch/en/newsroom/iso-45001-key-updates-2027-edition
[9] ISO, "ISO/DIS 45001 (Draft International Standard)", in development. https://www.iso.org/standard/89698.html
[10] Bywater, "Managing psychosocial risk and ISO 45003 training", 2026. https://www.bywater.co.uk/iso-45001-training-courses/
[11] LRQA, "ISO 45001 revision update: DIS ballot now open", Jun 2026. https://www.lrqa.com/en-au/latest-news/iso-45001-revision-update-dis-ballot-now-open/
[12] NQA, "ISO 45001:2027 Revision and Transition Support", 2026. https://www.nqa.com/en-gb/transitions/iso-45001-2027
[13] Department of Employment and Labour, "Notice issued by the Acting Compensation Commissioner under the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, 1993", General Notice 3894 of 2026, Government Gazette 54524, 15 Apr 2026. https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202604/54524gen3894_0.pdf
[14] Accounting Weekly / SAAA, "COIDA Return of Earnings (ROE) Submission Runs from 1 April to 30 June 2026", 2026. https://www.accountingweekly.com/trending-news/coida-return-of-earnings-roe-submission-runs-from-1-april-to-30-june-2026
[15] Company Partners, "COIDA Return of Earnings 2026 Deadline Explained", 2026. https://companypartners.co.za/coida-return-of-earnings-2026-deadline/
[16] SEESA, "COID Return of Earnings Deadline: What Employers Must Do Before 30 June 2026", 2026. https://www.seesa.co.za/blog/coid-return-of-earnings-deadline-2026/
[17] Sowetan, "EXPLAINER: Four months later, process to hire 10,000 labour inspectors starts", 09 Jun 2026. https://www.sowetan.co.za/news/2026-06-09-explainer-four-months-later-process-to-hire-10000-labour-inspectors-starts/
[18] SAnews, "Bill proposes foreign worker quotas, tougher employer penalties", 10 Jun 2026. https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/bill-proposes-foreign-worker-quotas-tougher-employer-penalties
[19] Daily Maverick, "Employing an undocumented foreign national for domestic work? What you need to know", 29 Jun 2026. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-06-29-employing-an-undocumented-foreign-national-for-domestic-work-what-you-need-to-know/
[20] ENSafrica, "South Africa: OHASA, Physical Agents Regulations 2024, Noise Exposure Regulations 2024, and Amendment of the General Safety Regulations 2025", 11 Mar 2025. https://www.ensafrica.com/news/detail/9836/south-africa-occupational-health-and-safety-a
[21] Webber Wentzel, "Recent amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act: new regulations", 2025. https://www.webberwentzel.com/News/Pages/recent-amendments-to-the-occupational-health-and-safety-act-new-regulations.aspx
[22] South African Government, "Occupational Health and Safety Act: Noise Exposure Regulations 2024 and Code of Practice for Audiometry, Government Gazette 52226", 06 Mar 2025. https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202503/52226gon5953.pdf
[23] Parliament of South Africa, "Employment Services Amendment Bill [B16-2026]", introduced 29 May 2026. https://www.parliament.gov.za/bill/2330539
[24] International Labour Organization, "Safe work, healthy workplaces: Tackling psychosocial risks at work", 24 Apr 2026. https://www.ilo.org/resource/statement/safe-work-healthy-workplaces-tackling-psychosocial-risks-work
[25] British Safety Council, "ILO report: psychosocial risks are now a critical occupational safety challenge", 2026. https://www.britsafe.org/safety-management/2026/ilo-report-psychosocial-risks-are-now-a-critical-occupational-safety-challenge
[26] South African Government, "Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Bill: Explanatory summary, Government Gazette 44572", 14 May 2021. https://www.gov.za/documents/notices/occupational-health-and-safety-amendment-bill-explanatory-summary-14-may-2021
[27] Parliamentary Monitoring Group, "Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Bill: call for comments (opened 21 May 2021, closed 31 July 2021)", 2021. https://pmg.org.za/call-for-comment/1063/
[28] Parliament of South Africa, "Media Statement: Committee on Employment and Labour Receives Employment Services Amendment Bill", 05 Aug 2026. https://www.parliament.gov.za/press-releases/media-statement-committee-employment-and-labour-receives-employment-services-amendment-bill
[29] Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, "New developments regarding the Employment Services Amendment Bill", 13 Aug 2026. https://www.cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com/en/news/publications/2026/South-Africa/Immigration-Law/immigration-law-alert-13-august-new-developments-regarding-the-employment-services-amendment-bill
[30] Parliament of South Africa, "Employment and Labour Committee Calls for Public Input on Employment Services Amendment Bill", 18 Sep 2026. https://www.africa-newsroom.com/press/employment-and-labour-committee-calls-for-public-input-on-employment-services-amendment-bill?lang=en
[31] Eyewitness News, "New Employment Services Amendment Bill seeks to regulate hiring of foreign nationals", 18 Sep 2026. https://www.ewn.co.za/2026/09/18/new-employment-services-amendment-bill-seeks-to-regulate-hiring-of-foreign-nationals
[32] International Organization for Standardization, "ISO 45003:2021 Occupational health and safety management, Psychological health and safety at work, Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks, catalogue record and lifecycle", read 25 Sep 2026. https://www.iso.org/standard/64283.html