Standards · Physical Agents Regulations
OHS Act · Physical Agents Regulations
The Physical Agents Regulations (PAR) come into force on 5 September 2026 under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Emergency lighting becomes mandatory for every qualifying workplace.
What PAR requires
PAR brings emergency lighting under the OHS Act schedule explicitly — until now SANS 10400-T and SANS 10114-2 were treated as good practice rather than statutory. From 5 September 2026, the Department of Employment & Labour can serve improvement notices or prohibition notices on workplaces that don't have compliant emergency lighting on evacuation routes.
Who it applies to
Every workplace covered by the OHS Act. That includes offices, retail, hospitality, healthcare, education, government buildings, mining and industrial sites — essentially every commercial space with an employer / employee relationship.
What "compliant" means
Emergency luminaires and exit signs that meet SANS 1464-22 (luminaire standard) and are installed to SANS 10114-2 (design and installation standard). Self-test or addressable monitoring is good practice; logbooks are mandatory.
Timeline pressure
Site assessment → design → quote → installation → commissioning takes 6–12 weeks for a typical commercial building. Buildings that wait until July 2026 will not be compliant by September.
Legal context
1987 vs 2024 — fines under the OHS Act
The OHS Act's penalty schedule has been updated. Where 1987 fines were nominal, post-2024 amendments have aligned fines with the National Treasury indexation and added criminal liability for company directors who knew of non-compliance. See the Webber Wentzel briefing for the full enforcement context.