Where these rules come from

Why there are references everywhere

If someone tells you what South African employment law requires, you are entitled to ask where it comes from. Every guide in this hub states a point in plain language and then shows the actual words of the Act, the Code or the judgment beside it, in a box. This page brings all of those sources together. They are public documents.

A note on the links. Judgments sit on SAFLII and legislation on the Law Library of South Africa. Several of the Law Library links open normally in a browser but block automated tools, so if a link does not resolve at first, open it in your browser. Gazette notices are published by the Government Printing Works through gov.za, and interpretation notes by SARS.

Two of the most important instruments in this field — the 2026 earnings-threshold determination and the 2025 Code of Good Practice: Dismissal — are published only as scanned images. Where this hub quotes them, the passage was read from the Gazette page with optical character recognition and then checked against that page, word for word, on 9 September 2026, and the quote box says so. The Gazette pages themselves remain the authority.

The sources

How these were verified

The figures on this hub were taken from the Gazette itself rather than from a summary, because several widely published summaries carry figures that are a year or more out of date. Specifically:

• the earnings threshold of R269 600,90 and its effective date of 1 May 2026 were read from Government Notice 7384 in Government Gazette 54544 of 17 April 2026;
• the national minimum wage of R30,23 an hour, the expanded public works rate and the learnership allowances were read from Government Notice R.7083 in Government Gazette 54075 of 3 February 2026;
• the Compensation Fund earnings cap and minimum assessments from General Notice 3910 in Government Gazette 54577 of 24 April 2026;
• the value-added tax registration thresholds from the SARS registration page, which records that SARS has administered the increased thresholds since 1 April 2026;
• and the designated employer test of 50 or more employees from the consolidated Employment Equity Act, which records the repeal of the turnover test with effect from 1 January 2025.

Every quotation in a source box on this hub was matched character for character against the retrieved source before publication. Where a passage could not be retrieved from a primary source, the point is stated in plain language instead of being presented as a quote, and the case is named without a quotation. Three cases relied on in this field are not on SAFLII at all — Smit v Workmen’s Compensation Commissioner 1979 (1) SA 51 (A), Denel v Gerber and CMS Support Services v Briggs — so they are named but never quoted.

What is not settled

Three points on this hub are stated carefully because the position is genuinely unresolved, and it is better to say so than to pick a side.

• Employment equity compliance certificates. The Department issues them and organs of state ask for them, and the 2025 Regulations prescribe the forms — but the consolidated Act still records section 53 as not yet commenced. Take advice before building a bid strategy on either reading.
• The Compensation Fund registration period. The Act leaves the period to the regulations, which could not be retrieved from a primary source. This hub therefore says “register when you start employing” and quotes only the seven-day clocks the Act itself sets: the new-employer estimate of earnings, changes in particulars, and accident reports.
• The first-aid box threshold. The requirement for a box above five employees sits in a 1992 amendment to the General Safety Regulations that could not be retrieved. The certified-first-aider rule above ten employees is quoted from the primary text.

Employment law also changes on an annual cycle, so re-check the Gazette before relying on any figure — see what is changing. Back to the hub, or book a consultation.