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OHS Act Compliance Checklist for South African Businesses (2026)

HSE Compliance Resources · ZeroLapse

The Occupational Health and Safety Act places the responsibility for a safe workplace squarely on the employer. For most businesses, staying compliant isn't about one big project — it's about consistently keeping a handful of ongoing areas up to date. Here's a practical rundown of what those areas are.

The core areas to have covered

Health and safety policy. A documented policy and, depending on your size, a health and safety committee structure with regular meetings.
Risk assessments. Identified hazards for your specific workplace and industry, reviewed periodically and whenever conditions change.
Legal appointments. Designated safety officers, first aiders, fire wardens and other required appointees for your workplace — appointed formally, not just assumed.
Training and certification records. Up-to-date proof that employees hold the training and certificates their roles require, renewed before they expire, not after.
PPE issuing and records. Personal protective equipment issued to the people who need it, with records of what was issued, when, and when it needs replacing.
Equipment and asset inspections. Machinery, lifting equipment and other regulated assets inspected and certified on schedule, with certificates kept on file.
Incident and accident reporting. A clear process for recording workplace incidents, investigating them, and reporting notifiable incidents to the Department of Employment and Labour where required.
COID registration. Active registration with the Compensation Fund and a current Letter of Good Standing on file.

Most compliance failures aren't dramatic — they're quiet. A certificate that expired three months ago and nobody noticed. A PPE reissue date that slipped past. These are the findings that turn up in an audit, not because anyone cut corners, but because nothing was tracking the dates.

Why this is harder than it sounds

Each item on this list is manageable on its own. The difficulty is that they all have different renewal cycles, apply to different people or assets, and are usually tracked in different places — a spreadsheet here, a filing cabinet there, a WhatsApp reminder to a supervisor. Nothing ties it together, so gaps only surface when someone goes looking, which is often the worst possible time: during an audit, after an incident, or when a client asks for proof.

What good tracking looks like

The businesses that stay ahead of this treat compliance as an ongoing operational task, not an annual scramble — one place that holds every certificate, appointment, PPE record and asset inspection, with automatic reminders before anything lapses rather than after.

One place for all of it

ZeroLapse tracks employee certifications, PPE, legal appointments, asset certificates and your COID status together, with automatic alerts 30, 15, 7 and 1 day before anything expires — so nothing slips through unnoticed.

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This checklist is general information for South African employers and isn't legal advice. Requirements vary by industry and workplace — consult the Department of Employment and Labour or a qualified HSE professional for guidance specific to your business.