Registered asbestos contractors in South Africa

A company applies to the Chief Inspector at the Department of Employment and Labour to be registered as a type 2 or a type 3 asbestos contractor. Under the Asbestos Abatement Regulations, 2020, type 1 work (painting without surface preparation, or removing less than 10 m² of asbestos cement) needs no registration; removing asbestos cement sheets is type 2 work, and friable asbestos, such as lagging, insulation or sprayed coatings, is type 3. A registered contractor may do only the type of work it is registered for (regulation 12), and each registration on this list runs for three years.

We could not find a registration fee published by the Department of Employment and Labour, so we don't quote one. Ask the Department directly before you apply. Most of the cost of becoming registered sits in what the regulations require of the work itself: trained workers, protective equipment and a plan of work for each job.

The Department of Employment and Labour's register held 670 entries when it was read on 19 September 2026. 157 are registered for type 2 and 3 asbestos work and 513 for type 2 work only. By 12 October 2026, 72 entries were past their expiry date.

The Western Cape, with 216 entries, followed by Gauteng with 165 and KwaZulu-Natal with 134. The Northern Cape has the fewest, with 4. Provinces are read from the address each company gave the Department.

Ask for the registration certificate before accepting a quote, then match the company name, the registration number and the expiry date against the Department's register. The work type on the certificate must cover the job: removing asbestos cement roof sheets is type 2 work, and friable asbestos such as lagging or insulation is type 3.

Three years. Every entry on the register shows a registration date and an expiry date three years later, after which the contractor must apply again.

No. The official record is the PDF published by the Department of Employment and Labour at labour.gov.za. This page is a readable, filterable copy of it, with contact names, phone numbers and email addresses left out. Always confirm against the contractor's own certificate.