OHS Readiness | 39 Years Of Safety Rules End 6 September 2026

The 1987 workplace safety rules fall away on 6 September 2026. This is your final readiness check.

In our previous edition, we introduced the new workplace safety regulations and the September 2026 date attached to them. That date now has weeks left on it, not months. On 6 September 2026, the Environmental Regulations for Workplaces of 1987, the rules that have governed the physical working environment in South Africa for nearly four decades, are repealed in their entirety. From that date, the Physical Agents Regulations, 2024 govern in their place. On the same date, the Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Regulations of 2003 are replaced by the Noise Exposure Regulations, 2024.

This article is the follow-through we promised: a final readiness check for members, focused on what must actually be in place when the transition completes.

What is repealed on 6 September 2026: Environmental Regulations for Workplaces, 1987 (GN R.2281 of 16 October 1987); Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Regulations, 2003

What governs from that date: Physical Agents Regulations, 2024, and Noise Exposure Regulations, 2024

Promulgated: Notices 5952 and 5953, Government Gazette No. 52226, 6 March 2025, with an 18-month transition period

Who is affected: Any employer or self-employed person whose work may expose any person to a physical agent, plus designers, manufacturers, importers and suppliers of plant and machinery for workplace use

The shift in approach: From the fixed minimum standards of 1987 to a documented risk management framework, built on assessment, monitoring, control and surveillance

Source: Physical Agents Regulations, 2024, GN 5952, Government Gazette No. 52226, 6 March 2025 (gov.za); ENSafrica health and safety alert, March 2025; Webber Wentzel, Recent Amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2025

Why this affects far more workplaces than you may think

The instinct to treat this as a factory and construction issue is the single most common readiness error. A physical agent is defined in the regulations as a source of energy which may result in injury or disease after exposure, and expressly includes cold stress, heat stress, vibration, non-ionising radiation and illumination. The regulations also address indoor air quality, a matter previously dealt with under the 1987 rules.

Read that list against an ordinary business. An office environment involves illumination and indoor air quality. A delivery operation involves vehicle vibration. Outdoor work, from agriculture to security to construction, involves heat and cold stress. A cold-chain or food business involves cold stress by design. The regulations apply to any employer whose work may expose any person to a physical agent, and on that definition very few workplaces fall outside them.

What the new framework requires of employers

The structural change is a move away from simply meeting fixed environmental standards toward demonstrating a managed, documented process. The core obligations under the Physical Agents Regulations are the following.

A physical agent exposure risk assessment.

The employer must assess which physical agents are present, who may be exposed, and at what level, and must maintain an action plan arising from the assessment. This assessment work must be performed by competent persons with the appropriate training and qualifications, and the use of unqualified persons for assessments, monitoring, surveillance or training may itself constitute non-compliance.

Exposure monitoring and control.

Where exposure exists, it must be monitored. The employer must eliminate exposure as far as is reasonably practicable, and where elimination is not reasonably practicable, must reduce exposure below the occupational exposure limits set out in the regulations by applying the prescribed hierarchy of control measures.

Medical screening and surveillance.

Where the risk assessment indicates it, the employer must establish, implement and maintain a documented system of medical surveillance overseen by an occupational medicine practitioner. Employees must give written informed consent to participate. The regulations introduce the concept of a vulnerable employee, being one at higher risk of injury, disease or complications from exposure, and the employer must obtain the opinion of an occupational medicine practitioner on whether screening is necessary for such employees.

Training, including annual refreshers.

Employees exposed to physical agents must receive both theoretical and practical training, with refresher training at least annually, or more frequently where the health and safety committee or representative recommends it. The duty extends beyond employees: mandataries and other persons who may be affected by exposure must also be informed and trained.

Records.

The employer must keep records including training records, the exposure risk assessment and action plan, and exposure monitoring results. In an inspection, these records are the evidence of compliance. Without them, compliance that happened in practice may as well not have happened at all.

Source: Physical Agents Regulations, 2024, GN 5952, Government Gazette No. 52226 (gov.za); Lexology and ENSafrica summaries, 2025; IntraSafe practitioner guidance, 2026

The noise regime is changing too

The Noise Exposure Regulations, 2024 replace the 2003 noise-induced hearing loss framework from the same date. They apply at any workplace where persons are exposed to continuous or impulse noise at or above the noise-rating limit or the noise action level, including situations of concurrent exposure to ototoxic chemical agents or whole-body vibration, a combination the old framework did not address. The new regulations require a documented noise risk assessment conducted by a competent person every two years, a noise exposure monitoring programme, medical surveillance and screening, and continuous and refresher training for employees likely to be exposed.

For members in manufacturing, workshops, printing, milling, construction and transport, the practical question is straightforward: has a competent person assessed your noise environment under the new framework, and is the assessment documented? If the answer is no, that is the gap to close first.

Source: Noise Exposure Regulations, 2024, GN 5953, Government Gazette No. 52226, 6 March 2025; Webber Wentzel, 2025

A note on the transition period

Legal commentators, including ENSafrica and Webber Wentzel, have pointed out that the transitional wording of the new regulations leaves some room for interpretation, including on whether the old and new frameworks operate concurrently until 6 September. Members should not take comfort from that ambiguity. The prudent course, recommended consistently across the professional commentary, is to implement the new requirements now, so far as is reasonably practicable, and to be fully compliant by the repeal date. An employer aligned with the new framework satisfies the old one; the reverse is not true.

The enforcement context supports the same conclusion. The Department of Employment and Labour has repeatedly confirmed its intention to strengthen inspection and enforcement services, and a newly commenced regulatory framework is precisely where inspection attention tends to concentrate.

Source: ENSafrica, March 2025; Webber Wentzel, 2025; Minister of Employment and Labour, statement of 13 May 2026 (gov.za)

The final readiness check

Identify every physical agent in your operation honestly, including the unglamorous ones: lighting, indoor air, heat, cold, vibration and noise
Commission or complete the physical agent exposure risk assessment through a competent person, and document the action plan that flows from it
Confirm the competence and qualifications of whoever performs your assessments, monitoring, medical surveillance and training, and retain proof of both
Where the assessment indicates medical surveillance, appoint the occupational medicine practitioner, establish the documented programme, and obtain written informed consent from affected employees
Schedule the theoretical and practical training now, diarise the annual refresher cycle, and extend the training to affected non-employees such as contractors on site
Assemble the record file an inspector would ask for: assessments, action plans, monitoring results, training records and surveillance documentation
For noise-exposed workplaces, ensure the documented noise risk assessment under the new regulations is in place and diarised for its two-year renewal

Final consideration

Nearly forty years of regulatory continuity ends on 6 September. The businesses that will pass through the transition without incident are those that treat the remaining weeks as implementation time rather than waiting time. The new framework rewards exactly one thing: a documented, competent, current risk management process. That is buildable in the time available, but only if the work starts now.

Members requiring guidance on their readiness, or assistance in sourcing competent persons for assessments and training, are encouraged to engage with their organiser or to contact info@saueo.co.za.

Sources:

Physical Agents Regulations, 2024 (GN 5952) and Noise Exposure Regulations, 2024 (GN 5953), Government Gazette No. 52226, 6 March 2025 (gov.za); Environmental Regulations for Workplaces, 1987 (GN R.2281 of 16 October 1987); ENSafrica, Occupational Health and Safety Act: Physical Agents Regulations 2024, Noise Exposure Regulations 2024, and Amendment of the General Safety Regulations, March 2025; Webber Wentzel, Recent Amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act: New Regulations, 2025; Minister of Employment and Labour, statement on the Q1 2026 QLFS, 13 May 2026 (gov.za).