Updated safety footwear standards: No clarity after marathon meeting

Pretoria, Gauteng, SA – South African safety footwear manufacturers and importers will have to wait until 08 October to get answers from the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) after a 3-hour, 30-minute Microsoft Teams ‘stakeholder meeting’ on 11

September overran its timeslot – and that was after the meeting was extended by 30 minutes.

The meeting was to discuss the implementation of the new and revised requirements of SANS 20345:2023; Compulsory Specification for Safety Footwear VC9002.

The main changes to the standard are around slip resistance requirements and test methods, and marking requirements.

But for the 19 or 20 safety footwear suppliers, the main considerations were how long it would take for the NRCS to award Letters of Authority (LOA) for all affected styles, and how long they and their customers will have to dispose of existing stocks after the April 2026 deadline for implementation of the revised standard.

Safety footwear businesses are reluctant to publicly criticise the NRCS, but there are concerns over the length of time it takes to get approvals, the effectiveness of policing of noncompliant footwear, and the interpretation of some provisions of the standard.

Said one, insisting on anonymity: “Every pair of safety footwear imported into SA has been approved by a competent body with far more experience than the NRCS. Why they feel it incumbent to check them all I don’t know.”

“We’re 100% ready for April,’ said Kaliber director Gary Brink. “The meeting was productive, but the implementation date and the extension haven’t been resolved, and those are my biggest concerns.”

“We’ve been committed to adhering to the requirements and implementation of SANS 20345:2023 since April 2024,” said ProFit national sales manager Nick Bryant, “and SAPEMA has been very helpful in obtaining information from all safety footwear suppliers and collectively putting forward thoughts and concerns many of us had, and I think many of us importers were on a similar train of thought, and have similar concerns. Those will be addressed by the NRCS in due course. When SANS 20345:2023 is fully implemented, the companies and end users buying and wearing the product will benefit the most from a transparency point of view and be more empowered to buy safety footwear best suited to their work environment.”