Kenneth Mqadi on why your office cleaner is the most exposed — and most overlooked — link in your OHS compliance chain, and what Section 8 actually requires of you.    Every morning, before the first emails are sent and the coffee machines begin to whir, she is there. Moving quietly through boardrooms and cubicles, the office cleaner — often referred to affectionately as "Aunty" — is a fixture of the workplace. She is physically present, yet she is frequently the most excluded person when it comes to safety meetings and hazard assessments. In more than a decade of walking into workplaces to assess risk, I have seen this pattern repeat itself almost everywhere: leadership focuses on high-level corporate risk, while the most exposed person in the building is left without the basic knowledge the law requires her to have. If she doesn't understand the legal requirements of her role, the health of your entire workforce — and the survival of your next audit — is in jeopardy. ...

Think HCS compliance only applies to factories? OHS Act Reg 5 & 6 covers your office cleaning cupboard too. A manager's guide to staying compliant.   When most South African managers hear "Hazardous Chemical Substances," they picture a heavy industrial plant — smokestacks, tankers, men in full-body chemical suits. So they relax. "We're just an office. We don't deal with that stuff." I need to stop you right there. That bottle of commercial-grade surface cleaner under your kitchen sink. The tin of paint left over from the last office refresh. The diesel can in the maintenance shed. The gas cylinder feeding your canteen stove. Every single one of those is a Hazardous Chemical Substance under South African law, and every single one of them falls under the same legal obligations as a chemical plant. Handled wrong, these "mundane" items are directly responsible for fires, poisoning, explosions, and fines that start at R100,000. And here's th...