The Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 places the duty for a safe workplace on the employer. It requires safe systems of work, trained and informed employees, elected safety representatives once you pass 20 staff, and specific provisions for first aid and fire.
The OHS Act applies to employers and employees at workplaces across South Africa — factories, warehouses, construction sites, workshops, shops and offices.
It does not apply to mines. Section 1(3)(a) excludes a mine, a mining area and works as defined in the minerals legislation. Mining operations fall under the Mine Health and Safety Act 29 of 1996 instead. If you run both a mine and a surface workshop, you may be working under both.
Four sections carry most of the weight.
| Section | What it requires |
|---|---|
| Section 8 | Provide and maintain, as far as is reasonably practicable, a working environment that is safe and without risk to employees' health. It also requires you to eliminate or mitigate a hazard before falling back on protective equipment. |
| Section 13 | Make every employee conversant with the hazards attached to the work they do, and provide the information, instruction, training and supervision necessary for their health and safety at work. |
| Section 16 | The chief executive officer must ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that the employer's duties under the Act are properly discharged. The duty sits at the top, not only with the safety officer. |
| Section 37 | An employer can be held liable for an employee's or mandatary's act or omission unless it can show the act was without permission, outside their authority, and that reasonable steps were taken to prevent it. |
Section 13 is the one that turns safety law into a training budget. "Information, instruction, training and supervision" is not satisfied by a signed induction register if the person still cannot do the work safely.
Once you have more than 20 employees at a workplace. Section 17 requires the employer to designate health and safety representatives in writing, and sets the numbers:
Representatives must be full-time employees of that workplace. Their job is to inspect, identify hazards and raise them — not to fix everything themselves, and not to carry the employer's legal duty.
Once two or more representatives have been designated, section 19 requires a health and safety committee, and section 20 requires it to meet at least once every three months.
First aid sits in regulation 3 of the General Safety Regulations, made under the Act:
Note the two different thresholds. Five triggers the box; ten triggers the trained person. Plan around leave and shifts, so a certified first aider is genuinely available rather than just on the list.
Regulation 9 of the Environmental Regulations for Workplaces requires the employer to provide an adequate supply of suitable fire-fighting equipment at strategic points, and to keep it in working order.
The Act does not set a ratio of trained fire fighters to employees. What it does do is require, under sections 8 and 13, that employees are given the instruction and training they need to work safely — and that includes being able to use the equipment you have put on the wall. An extinguisher nobody has been trained on is equipment, not a control.
Section 24 requires an employer to notify an inspector of an incident in which a person dies, becomes unconscious, loses a limb, suffers a serious injury or illness likely to cause permanent disability, or is unable to work for 14 days or longer.
Reading the sections together, an employer covered by the Act typically needs:
| What the law asks for | Where it comes from | The course |
|---|---|---|
| Elected safety representatives, trained to inspect and report | Sections 17, 19, 20 | SHE Representative — 2 days, R1 100 |
| A certified first aider per 50 employees, once you pass 10 | General Safety Regulation 3 | First Aid Level 1 and 2 — from R957 |
| People able to use the fire equipment you provide | ERW regulation 9 with OHS Act sections 8 and 13 | Fire Fighting Level 1 and 2 — from R1 034 |
| Fall protection for anyone working at height | Sections 8 and 13; Construction Regulations where they apply | Working at Heights — 2 days, R1 628 |
| Operators competent on the machine they run | Sections 8 and 13 | Machine operator certificates — per machine class |
We train on site at your own premises anywhere in South Africa, or at our Mokopane centre. Tell us your headcount and which appointments you need to fill.
If you employ people at a workplace in South Africa, almost certainly yes. The main exclusion is mining, which falls under the Mine Health and Safety Act 29 of 1996 instead. Shops and offices are covered, with their own ratios for representatives and first aiders.
You need them once you have more than 20 employees at that workplace. From there it is one representative for every 50 employees or part thereof, or one for every 100 in a shop or office. Two or more representatives means you also need a health and safety committee meeting at least quarterly.
No. They are separate appointments under separate provisions. A representative is designated under section 17 to inspect and report on conditions. A first aider is required under General Safety Regulation 3 to treat an injured person. One person can hold both, but holding one does not satisfy the other.
No. It requires suitable fire-fighting equipment under regulation 9 of the Environmental Regulations for Workplaces, and it requires under sections 8 and 13 that employees get the instruction and training they need to work safely. Any specific ratio you see quoted does not come from the Act itself.
Section 16 puts it on the chief executive officer, who must ensure as far as is reasonably practicable that the employer's duties are properly discharged. Duties can be assigned to others in writing, but assigning a task does not move the accountability.
Under section 24, an incident in which someone dies, becomes unconscious, loses a limb, suffers a serious injury or illness likely to cause permanent disability, or cannot work for 14 days or more.
