-
An Employee Was Injured Today: The First-24-Hours Protocol
⚡ Quick answer When an employee is injured at work, the first 24 hours follow a fixed protocol: get medical attention immediately, make the scene safe (and preserve it if the injury is serious), record the incident with witnesses and photos, notify the family where relevant, and start the two reporting clocks — the COIDA claim to the Compensation Fund within 7 days, and for serious incidents the OHS report to the Department inspector within 7 days. Keep paying the employee; for temporary total disablement the employer pays the first three months and claims it back from the Fund. The day an employee injured at work is the day your…
-
Letter of Good Standing Expired Before a Tender? The Rescue Drill
⚡ Quick answer A Letter of Good Standing that has expired or been refused almost always traces to one of three causes: an unfiled Return of Earnings, an unpaid assessment (often an estimated one raised after a missed return), or records sitting under the wrong entity. The rescue drill: pull your Compensation Fund account status, identify the exact gap, file the outstanding ROEs, let assessments be corrected, pay or arrange, then re-request the letter. Small gaps fix in days; multi-year gaps take weeks — start before the tender advert, not the week it closes. The tender closes Friday and the Letter of Good Standing is expired, refused, or was never…
-
COIDA ROE Season Opens 1 April: What to Prepare Now
⚡ Quick answer COIDA ROE season runs from 1 April to 31 May every year: every employer registered with the Compensation Fund must file a Return of Earnings declaring actual employee earnings for the year 1 March to end February, plus an estimate for the year ahead. Prepare three numbers before April: total earnings per employee for the assessment year, your headcount, and a realistic estimate for the coming year. Miss the window and the Fund estimates your earnings upward, adds penalties, and suspends your Letter of Good Standing. Every April, the COIDA ROE lands on the same desks as the EMP501 — and every May, a slice of employers…
-
Your Domestic Worker Needs a Payslip and UIF — Here Is the How
⚡ Quick answer If your domestic worker works 24 hours or more a month, you are an employer with legal duties: a written contract or particulars, a monthly payslip (even for cash wages), UIF registration on uFiling with monthly declarations (2% of wages — 1% from them, 1% from you), and COIDA registration with the Compensation Fund. The UIF cost on a R4,500 wage is R90 a month total. Admin Boss registers domestic employers for UIF (R450) and COIDA (R350). The household is South Africa’s most informal workplace — and the one where employer obligations are most often simply unknown. If a domestic worker helps in your home more than…
-
Can a Sole Proprietor Employ Staff? Yes — Here Is Exactly How
⚡ Quick answer A sole proprietor can absolutely employ staff in South Africa — no company required. The obligations are identical to a company’s: register with SARS as an employer (EMP101e, using your ID instead of CIPC documents), register on uFiling for UIF, register with the Compensation Fund within 7 days of the first employee, issue written contracts, run compliant payroll with payslips, and file EMP201s monthly. The business and the owner are the same legal person, which makes clean record-keeping even more important. One of the most persistent myths in South African small business is that you must register a company before you can hire anyone. You do not.…
-
The 5 Registrations Every New South African Employer Needs
⚡ Quick answer A new South African employer needs five registrations across four systems: SARS employer registration (EMP101e — PAYE, UIF and SDL together), uFiling with the Department of Employment & Labour, Compensation Fund registration within 7 days of the first employee, and information officer registration with the Information Regulator under POPIA. Companies also keep CIPC annual returns current. None charges a government fee, and all five can be completed in about a week. Ask a new employer how many registrations they need and the guesses range from one to a dozen. The honest answer is five employer registrations across four government systems — and the confusion comes from nobody…
-
What an Employee Really Costs in South Africa (Beyond the Salary)
⚡ Quick answer The cost of an employee in South Africa runs roughly 10–20% above gross salary once statutory costs and overheads are counted: employer UIF (1% of remuneration up to the ceiling), SDL (1% if annual payroll exceeds R500,000), the COIDA assessment (tariff per R100 of earnings by industry), paid leave (21 days annual plus sick and public holidays), and the practical costs of equipment, training and payroll admin. A R15,000 salary typically costs the business R17,000–R18,000 all-in. The salary is the number everyone negotiates; the cost of an employee is the number the business actually pays. The gap between the two surprises almost every first-time employer — here…
-
Hiring Your First Employee? The Complete 2026 Checklist
⚡ Quick answer Hiring your first employee triggers a fixed sequence: register with SARS (EMP101e) within 21 business days of first paying them, register for UIF on uFiling, register with the Compensation Fund within 7 days of their start date, issue a written contract by day one, set up payroll with payslips, and diarise the monthly EMP201 deadline (the 7th). Most of it can be done in a week — or handled for you for around R1,950 total. There is a version of hiring your first employee that feels like a milestone — and a version that feels like a compliance ambush. The difference is a checklist. Here is the…
