2026-09-299 min read

Electrical Safety Standards in South African Industrial Facilities: A Compliance Checklist

South Africa's electrical safety framework spans the OHS Act, SANS 10142-1 and equipment standards. A practical compliance checklist for industrial sites.

Electrical safety compliance in South African industrial facilities is not a single certificate or a once-off inspection. It is a framework of overlapping legislation, wiring codes, and equipment standards — each with its own scope, its own renewal cycle, and its own consequences for getting it wrong. Plant engineers and facility managers are frequently the ones held accountable for a framework nobody handed them a map of.

This article lays out the regulatory landscape that applies to industrial electrical installations in South Africa, the equipment standards that switchgear and distribution equipment must meet, and a compliance checklist you can use to assess where your facility stands.

The Legal Foundation: The OHS Act

The Occupational Health and Safety Act (Act 85 of 1993) is the primary legislation governing workplace electrical safety in South Africa. Section 8 places a general duty on every employer to provide and maintain a working environment that is safe and without risk to health, so far as is reasonably practicable. Section 9 extends that duty to persons other than employees who may be affected by the employer's undertaking — contractors, visitors, and members of the public on site.

Two sets of regulations made under the OHS Act translate that general duty into specific electrical requirements:

The Electrical Installation Regulations, 2009 govern fixed electrical installations — the wiring, distribution boards, and permanently connected equipment inside a facility. They require that every electrical installation be installed by, or under the supervision of, a person registered with the Department of Employment and Labour, and that installations be certified before being brought into use or transferred to a new owner or occupier.
The Electrical Machinery Regulations, 2011 govern electrical machinery more broadly, including switchgear, generators, and machinery used in hazardous locations. They introduce specific requirements for earthing, protection against direct and indirect contact, and machinery used in explosive atmospheres.

Neither regulation is optional based on facility size or industry sector. A small workshop and a large mining processing plant carry the same underlying obligation — the scale of the compliance programme differs, not the requirement to have one.

SANS 10142-1: The Wiring Code

SANS 10142-1 ("The Wiring of Premises: Low-voltage installations") is the technical wiring code referenced by the Electrical Installation Regulations and is, in practice, the document electrical contractors and inspectors work from day to day. It covers conductor sizing, protection coordination, earthing arrangements, isolation requirements, and the general construction of low-voltage installations up to 1 000 V AC.

For medium-voltage installations above 1 000 V, SANS 10198 (the code of practice for MV switchgear and installations) and manufacturer-specific commissioning requirements apply alongside the general OHS Act duties. Facilities running both LV distribution and an MV intake substation need to manage compliance against both codes concurrently — they are not interchangeable, and an installation certified against one does not imply certification against the other.

SANS 10142-1 is periodically revised. Facilities that rely on an installation certified years ago against an older edition should confirm, at their next major electrical work, which edition applies to new work — the Electrical Installation Regulations generally require new work to comply with the edition in force at the time the work is done, not the edition in force when the original installation was certified.

Certificates of Compliance and Registered Persons

A Certificate of Compliance (CoC) is the formal document confirming that an electrical installation, or work done on one, meets the requirements of SANS 10142-1 and the Electrical Installation Regulations. A CoC:

Must be issued by a registered person — an electrician or electrical contractor registered with the Department of Employment and Labour's electrical registration body, not by an equipment supplier or an unregistered contractor.
Is required whenever a new installation is energised, when an installation changes ownership or occupancy, and after any electrical work is done that affects the safety of the installation — not only for brand-new builds.
Should be kept on file at the facility and produced on request by an inspector, insurer, or new occupier. A facility that cannot produce a valid CoC on request is, in practical terms, unable to demonstrate compliance regardless of the actual condition of the installation.

A common gap on industrial sites is treating the CoC as a one-time event at construction handover and never updating it as the installation changes. Every addition, modification, or reconfiguration of the fixed installation — a new distribution board, a relocated MCC, an added feeder — triggers the requirement for a fresh or supplementary CoC covering that work.

Equipment Standards for Switchgear and Distribution Equipment

Beyond the installation-level codes, the switchgear and distribution equipment itself is manufactured and type-tested against international IEC standards, generally adopted into the South African body of standards as SANS equivalents:

IEC 61439 governs low-voltage switchgear and controlgear assemblies — the design, construction, and verification requirements for LV distribution boards and motor control centres. Compliant equipment carries documented type-test evidence for temperature rise, short-circuit withstand, and protection against electric shock.
IEC 62271-200 governs AC metal-enclosed switchgear and controlgear for rated voltages above 1 kV — the standard MV ring main units and switchboards are type tested against.
IEC 60947 covers low-voltage switching devices — fuse switch disconnectors, isolators, and contactors — specifying their rated making and breaking capacity and mechanical endurance.
IEC 61482 covers protective clothing and equipment against the thermal effects of an electric arc, referenced when specifying PPE and arc-rated enclosures. (Our arc flash safety guide covers this standard and arc flash risk assessment in more detail.)

Specifying equipment type-tested to the relevant IEC standard, and retaining the manufacturer's type-test certificates on file, is a meaningful part of demonstrating due diligence — both to an inspector and, in the event of an incident, to an insurer or investigator.

Earthing and Lightning Protection

Earthing is regulated both as part of SANS 10142-1 (earthing of the fixed installation) and, for lightning protection specifically, under SANS 10313 (the South African adoption of IEC 62305), which covers risk assessment, air termination systems, down conductors, and earth termination networks for structures exposed to lightning strike risk.

South Africa's lightning ground flash density is high in several industrial regions, including parts of Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal. Facilities in these areas — particularly those with tall structures, outdoor MV equipment, or sensitive electronic control systems — should treat a lightning risk assessment as a standard part of the electrical compliance programme, not an optional extra commissioned only after a strike event.

Earth continuity and earth resistance testing should form part of the periodic testing regime described below, since earthing system integrity degrades over time from corrosion, soil condition changes, and mechanical disturbance during civil works.

Lockout-Tagout and Permit-to-Work

Isolating equipment before working on it is a legal requirement, not a best-practice suggestion. The Electrical Installation Regulations and Electrical Machinery Regulations both require that equipment be de-energised, isolated, and rendered safe before work begins, and a documented lockout-tagout (LOTO) procedure is the standard mechanism for demonstrating that this happened in a controlled, verifiable way.

A defensible LOTO programme includes:

A written isolation procedure for each piece of equipment or circuit, identifying every energy source (electrical, stored mechanical, pneumatic, hydraulic) that must be isolated.
Personal locks and tags issued to each individual working on the equipment — not a single shared lock for a work party.
A documented sign-off before re-energisation, confirming all personnel are clear and all locks removed.
Isolation points with a visible, positive break — this is why the choice of isolator matters at the equipment level, not just the procedure.

Notifiable Work and Registration

Certain categories of electrical work and certain categories of workplace require formal registration or notification to the Department of Employment and Labour — for example, the registration of electrical contractors themselves, and site-specific notifications for higher-risk installations or hazardous-location work. Facilities operating in explosive atmospheres (grain handling, certain chemical processes, some mining applications) carry additional requirements under the Electrical Machinery Regulations for equipment certified for the relevant hazardous area classification.

Confirming registration and notification status is a task best handled in consultation with your registered electrical contractor or a compliance specialist familiar with your specific facility classification — the requirements vary meaningfully by industry and by the hazard classification of the areas involved.

Periodic Inspection and Testing

A Certificate of Compliance issued at commissioning is not a permanent guarantee of ongoing safety. SANS 10142-1 and good practice both call for periodic re-inspection, with the interval depending on the nature of the installation and its operating environment — industrial and higher-risk installations generally warrant shorter intervals than low-risk commercial premises. Our switchgear maintenance guide covers the specific test regime — insulation resistance testing, contact resistance measurement, protection relay testing, and thermographic surveys — that should run alongside the compliance inspection cycle.

Compliance Checklist

Use this as a starting point to assess your facility's position, not as an exhaustive audit:

A valid Certificate of Compliance is on file, covering the installation as it currently exists — including all additions and modifications since the original CoC.
All electrical work has been carried out by, or under the supervision of, a person registered with the Department of Employment and Labour.
LV switchgear and distribution boards are type tested to IEC 61439; MV switchgear is type tested to IEC 62271-200; type-test certificates are on file.
A documented, site-specific lockout-tagout procedure exists for every piece of equipment where isolation is required for maintenance.
Earthing systems, including lightning protection where applicable, have been tested within the last inspection cycle.
Arc flash risk has been assessed and hazard labelling is current on all switchgear and distribution boards.
A protection coordination study exists, matches the as-installed relay settings, and has been reviewed after any change to the network configuration.
Hazardous-area classifications, where applicable, have been documented and equipment specified accordingly.
A re-inspection schedule is in place, with the last inspection date recorded and the next due date tracked.

A facility that can tick every item on this list is in a materially stronger position — both for regulatory compliance and for the practical goal of preventing an incident — than one relying on a single CoC issued years ago and never revisited.

Working With GNTech

Electrical safety compliance in South Africa is ultimately certified by a registered person, not by an equipment supplier — GNTech does not issue Certificates of Compliance. What GNTech does provide is equipment specified and type tested to the standards this compliance framework requires: Telergon LV fuse-switch disconnectors and isolators compliant with IEC 60947, and Pronutec MV ring main units and switchboards type tested to IEC 62271-200. Specifying compliant equipment at the design stage is one of the more effective ways to keep a facility on the right side of its compliance obligations for the equipment's operating lifetime.

If you're reviewing your facility's compliance position and need equipment specified to the correct standard for your application, contact the GNTech engineering team for a specification review.