Standards · Webber Wentzel briefing
Webber Wentzel briefing · PAR enforcement
Legal briefing on the enforcement of the Physical Agents Regulations under the OHS Act — penalties, director liability, and how recent amendments compare to the 1987 baseline.
Penalty regime
Under the original 1987 OHS Act, fines were nominal — typically a few thousand rand even for serious non-compliance. Post-2024 amendments indexed these to National Treasury rates and added criminal liability for directors who knew or ought to have known about the non-compliance.
Director liability
If a workplace incident occurs and the inspectorate finds emergency-lighting non-compliance contributed, the directors of the company can face individual prosecution. This is the lever that makes PAR a board-level concern, not just a facilities-management concern.
Insurance exposure
Most commercial property insurance policies require compliance with applicable statutory requirements. Non-compliance with PAR may void cover for fire or evacuation-related claims — your broker will confirm. The legal opinion: assume non-compliance voids cover unless you can prove otherwise.
Citation
A full Webber Wentzel briefing is on file at docs/legal/. Drew is confirming public-citation rights — until then we paraphrase ("recent legal analysis") in customer-facing materials.
For specifiers
How to use this
When a client asks "why now?" the answer is the combination of (1) PAR effective date 5 September 2026, (2) updated OHS Act penalty regime, (3) director liability, and (4) insurance exposure. Lead with the human and commercial consequence, not the regulation.