Dear employer
On 13 January 2026, the Minister of Employment and Labour issued a notice withdrawing a 2003 exclusion relating to contributions payable to benefit funds regulated under the Pension Funds Act 24 of 1956 (PFA), such as pension, provident, retirement, or similar funds.
This intervention will cause major disruptions for payroll administrators at companies, in particular in respect of wage earners where contributions will now have to be paid over on a weekly basis instead of monthly as per the PFA.
The notice brings the regulation of these payments to also fall under section 34A of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) which has been excluded since 2003 from operation in regulating the payment of these contributions.
The practical implication will therefore be that employers will now be subject to dual enforcement for non-payment of benefit fund contributions under the BCEA and the PFA.
In terms of S34A, employers must pay the amounts to the fund within seven days of the deduction in terms of the BCEA. The prescribed timeline in the PFA however differs and requires that payments must be made seven days after the end of the month for which the contribution is due, which is usually the 7th of the following month.
Practically, this means that if payroll and deductions run on the 25th of a month, payment would need to reach the fund by roughly the 1st of the following month (seven days after deduction), instead of the 7th (seven days after month-end). Therefore, where payroll falls before month-end, employers will have to prepare to bring contribution payments forward to accommodate the shorter period window in order to ensure compliance with section 34A of the BCEA.
Additionally, the notice implies that labour inspectors will also now have explicit authority to monitor and enforce the timeous payment of contributions. The Office of the Pension Fund Adjudicator (OPFA) and financial sector regulators also retain their enforcement powers under the PFA.
Under the BCEA, labour inspectors may issue compliance orders and impose administrative penalties. Whilst under the PFA, non-payment is a criminal offence punishable by a fine of up to R10 million, imprisonment for up to 10 years, and also, directors can be held personally liable under the PFA.
Therefore, employers that fail to pay contributions timeously may face concurrent action from both labour inspectors and the FSCA, with potentially overlapping penalties under the new dual enforcement regime.
Employers are thus urged to take note of these developments and to review their payroll/deductions calendars, cash-flow planning etc. to accommodate the changes in order to ensure that they remain compliant and mitigate risk.
For more information
NEASA Media Department
media@neasa.co.za
