South African OHS Glossary and Compliance Checklist

Plain English definitions of the terms that come up most often in South African occupational health and safety, followed by a checklist you can run against your own business.

Each definition below stands on its own, so you can look up a single term without reading the rest of the page. Below the glossary is a compliance checklist covering the areas most South African employers get tested on.

Legal Appointments and Liability

CR-5 (Construction Regulation 5): Regulation 5 of the Construction Regulations, 2014, made under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. It sets out the client’s duties on a construction project, including preparing a health and safety specification, checking that a principal contractor has a suitable health and safety plan before work starts, and stopping any work that does not meet the agreed requirements.
CR-7 (Construction Regulation 7): Regulation 7 of the Construction Regulations, 2014, made under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. It sets out the duties of principal contractors and contractors, including preparing a site-specific health and safety plan, keeping a health and safety file, and ensuring any contractor they appoint complies with the same requirements that apply to them.
Principal Contractor: The contractor appointed in writing by a client to take overall responsibility for construction work on a site, including compliance with the Construction Regulations, coordinating other contractors, and keeping the site health and safety file. Where a principal contractor appoints another contractor, that contractor takes on equivalent duties for its own portion of the work.
Section 16(1) appointment: Section 16(1) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act places the employer’s health and safety duties personally on the chief executive officer of a business. This applies automatically, without a separate appointment letter, and the chief executive remains accountable even where duties are assigned to others under section 16(2).
Section 16(2) appointment: Section 16(2) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act allows a chief executive officer to assign specific health and safety duties, in writing, to a person under their control. The assignment does not remove the chief executive’s own liability under section 16(1). It creates an additional appointee who is also accountable for the duties assigned to them.
Section 37 (vicarious liability): Section 37 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act makes an employer liable for the acts or omissions of its employees or mandataries that breach the Act, as if the employer had committed the breach itself, unless the employer can show reasonable steps were taken to prevent it. This is why employers can be held responsible for failures caused by staff or contracted persons acting on their behalf.

Site Documentation

Construction Safety File: The collection of health and safety documents a principal contractor must keep on a construction site under the Construction Regulations, 2014. It typically includes appointment letters, risk assessments, method statements, the site health and safety plan, training records and incident registers. It must be available for inspection on site and handed to the client on completion.
Method Statement: A written, step-by-step description of how a specific task will be carried out safely, covering the sequence of work, the equipment and materials used, the people responsible, and the precautions controlling identified risks. It supports the risk assessment for higher-risk or non-routine tasks and is used to brief workers before the task begins.
Safe Work Procedure: A written set of instructions describing the correct and safe way to carry out a routine task or operate specific equipment. Unlike a method statement, which usually covers a once-off or higher-risk activity, a safe work procedure is a standing document used repeatedly, and it forms part of worker induction and ongoing training for that task.
Fall Protection Plan: A site-specific document required under Construction Regulation 10 wherever a person could fall two metres or more while working. It must be compiled by a competent person, include a risk assessment for each work-at-height activity, and set out the control measures, equipment and rescue procedures to be used. Workers must be trained on it before starting work at height.

Risk Assessment

HIRA (Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment): The process of identifying hazards present in a workplace or task, assessing how likely each is to cause harm and how severe that harm could be, and deciding on control measures to reduce the risk to an acceptable level. Employers have a general duty under the Occupational Health and Safety Act to assess risks, and HIRA is the standard method used.
Baseline Risk Assessment: The initial, project-wide risk assessment required under the Construction Regulations before construction work begins. It identifies the major hazards likely to arise on that specific site, based on its location, scope and conditions, and ranks them by severity and likelihood. It forms the foundation for more detailed task-specific risk assessments and method statements.
Toolbox Talk: A short, informal safety briefing held with a work team, usually before a shift or task begins, covering a specific hazard, procedure or recent incident relevant to the work ahead. It is not a substitute for formal training, but a practical way of reinforcing awareness and giving workers a chance to raise concerns before work starts.

Workplace Structures and Roles

SHE Representative: A Safety, Health and Environment Representative is an employee appointed under sections 17 and 18 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act to represent workers on health and safety matters. Employers with more than 20 employees at a workplace must appoint them, at a ratio of at least one per 50 employees in most workplaces, or one per 100 in shops and offices.
Health and Safety Committee: A workplace forum required under section 19 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act wherever an employer has appointed two or more health and safety representatives. It brings representatives and management together to discuss incidents, inspections and recommendations, and to review the effectiveness of health and safety measures at the workplace on a regular basis.
First Aider: A person trained and certificated to give emergency first aid in the workplace, as required under the General Safety Regulations made in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Employers with more than 10 employees at a workplace must appoint at least one first aider available during working hours, in addition to keeping an accessible, properly stocked first aid box.

Enforcement

Prohibition Notice: A notice issued under section 30 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act by a Department of Employment and Labour inspector who believes a situation poses a serious or imminent danger to health or safety. It orders the immediate stopping of the activity, process or use of equipment concerned until the danger has been removed and the notice lifted.
Improvement Notice: A written direction issued by a Department of Employment and Labour inspector who finds that an employer has failed to comply with a legal requirement, where there is no immediate danger. It sets out the steps the employer must take, and the period for taking them, to return to compliance, without necessarily stopping work in the meantime.
Section 54 stoppage: An instruction issued under section 54 of the Mine Health and Safety Act by an inspector from the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources who believes a condition or practice at a mine endangers health or safety. It halts the affected operation, in whole or in part, until the inspector’s requirements have been met or the instruction is lifted.
Reportable Incident (Section 24): A workplace occurrence, such as a death, serious injury, dangerous structural failure or certain machinery failures, that an employer must report under section 24 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The employer must notify the provincial director without delay and keep a written record. Failing to report a reportable incident is a criminal offence in its own right.

Bodies, Qualifications and Insurance Records

SACPCMP: The South African Council for the Project and Construction Management Professions, established under the Project and Construction Management Act 48 of 2000. It registers and regulates professionals in construction project management, construction management, and construction health and safety, including the Construction Health and Safety Officer, Manager and Agent categories used to identify the competent person required on construction sites.
SAIOSH: The South African Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, a professional body recognised by the South African Qualifications Authority to register occupational health and safety practitioners. Membership is graded according to a practitioner’s experience and qualifications, and is used by employers and clients as a way of verifying a safety practitioner’s professional standing.
SAMTRAC: The Safety Management Training Course, a widely recognised foundational qualification in occupational health and safety management in South Africa, offered by NOSA. It covers legislation, hazard identification, risk assessment and safety management systems, and is often treated as a baseline qualification for safety officers, coordinators and managers alongside professional registration.
Letter of Good Standing: A certificate issued by the Compensation Fund confirming that an employer is registered under the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, has submitted its annual Return of Earnings, and has paid its assessment fees. Many clients and tenders require a valid letter before allowing a contractor onto site or awarding a contract.
COID / COIDA: The Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, 130 of 1993. It requires employers to register with and contribute to the Compensation Fund, which pays compensation to employees who are injured, disabled or contract a disease in the course of their work, or to their dependants if the employee dies as a result.

Self-Assessment

OHS Compliance Checklist

Run this against your own business. Anything you cannot answer with a confident yes is worth looking at.

Legal Appointments

The Act places safety duties on specific named individuals. If those appointments are missing or out of date, no one is legally accountable for compliance.

Has the chief executive’s Section 16(1) duty been formally acknowledged, even though it applies automatically?
Have Section 16(2) appointments been made in writing for managers with assigned safety duties?
Has a SHE Representative been appointed where the workplace has more than 20 employees?
Where two or more SHE Representatives are appointed, has a health and safety committee been established?
Has a first aider been appointed where the workplace has more than 10 employees?
On construction sites, has the client fulfilled its CR-5 duties and appointed a principal contractor in writing?
Has the principal contractor accepted its CR-7 duties in writing?
Are all appointment letters signed, dated and kept on file, with a current incumbent in each role?

Safety File and Documentation

The safety file is the primary evidence of compliance an inspector, client or auditor will ask for. If it cannot be produced on request, it is treated as if it does not exist.

Is there a safety file kept up to date and accessible on site?
Does it include current appointment letters for all legally required roles?
Are method statements available for all higher-risk or non-routine tasks?
Are safe work procedures documented for routine tasks and equipment?
Is the fall protection plan current wherever work at height takes place?
Are training and induction records for all workers kept on file?
Are incident and near-miss records kept and up to date?
Has the safety file been reviewed or audited in the last 12 months?

Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is the starting point every other safety measure follows from. Without it, controls are guesswork.

Has a baseline risk assessment been completed for the site or project?
Are task-specific risk assessments completed before higher-risk work begins?
Are risk assessments reviewed whenever conditions, tasks or equipment change?
Are the control measures identified actually implemented on site, not just documented?
Are risk assessments signed off by a competent person?
Have workers been briefed on the risk assessments relevant to their own tasks?
Are risk assessments dated and version controlled so the current one is the one in use?

Training and Competency

A worker cannot reasonably be expected to work safely on something they were never trained or assessed as competent to do.

Do workers hold valid, relevant training certificates for the tasks they perform?
Has a competent person been appointed for each specialised task, such as fall protection, scaffolding or excavation?
Are safety officers or coordinators appropriately qualified and registered where required?
Are toolbox talks held regularly and recorded?
Is there an induction process for new workers and visitors before they enter the site?
Are training records refreshed before certificates expire?
Is there a record of who attended each training session or toolbox talk?

Health and Medicals

Some work exposes employees to hazards that only show up in a medical examination, so fitness to work has to be checked, not assumed.

Have medical surveillance requirements for the specific hazards on site been identified?
Are pre-employment medical examinations conducted where required?
Are periodic medical examinations conducted at the required intervals?
Are exit medicals conducted when an employee leaves the business?
Are medical records kept confidentially and for the required retention period?
Is occupational hygiene monitoring, such as for noise, dust or chemical exposure, conducted where relevant?
Are employees found unfit for a task removed from that task until cleared?

Emergency Preparedness

An emergency plan that has never been tested is a guess at how people will behave under pressure, not a plan.

Is there a written emergency plan covering fire, medical emergencies and evacuation?
Are evacuation routes and assembly points clearly marked and kept unobstructed?
Are fire extinguishers and other emergency equipment inspected and serviced on schedule?
Are emergency drills conducted and recorded at reasonable intervals?
Are emergency contact numbers displayed and kept current?
Is there a nominated person responsible for coordinating an emergency response?
Are first aid boxes stocked, accessible and checked regularly?

Incident Reporting

Section 24 makes reporting certain incidents a legal duty, not an option, and failing to report is a criminal offence in its own right.

Is there a clear internal procedure for reporting any injury, near miss or incident?
Are Section 24 reportable incidents correctly identified?
Are reportable incidents reported to the provincial director without delay?
Are all incidents, including minor ones, recorded and investigated?
Is the health and safety committee involved in reviewing incident records?
Are corrective actions from investigations tracked through to completion?
Are incident records retained for the required period?

Contractor Management

Bringing another employer’s workers onto your site does not transfer your legal duties to them, so their compliance has to be actively managed.

Is there a process for vetting a contractor’s safety documentation before they start work?
Does every contractor hold a current Letter of Good Standing under COIDA?
Have contractors submitted their own risk assessments and method statements for their scope?
Are contractor inductions completed before work begins?
Is there a written agreement setting out each party’s health and safety responsibilities?
Is contractor safety performance monitored while they are on site?
Is there a record of which contractors are currently authorised to be on site?

A checklist will not catch everything an audit would

If you would like this run properly, as a full audit of your legal appointments, documentation, risk assessments and site practices, we work as an outsourced health and safety department rather than a single consultant, so you get a complete picture rather than a self-assessment.

Call 067 612 1132 Request an Audit