President Cyril Ramaphosa gave immediate effect to a batch of Companies Act amendments on 22 May 2026, more than a year after he originally signed them into law in July 2024. 

The changes hit public and state-owned companies hardest, introducing forward-looking remuneration policies that must be approved by shareholders at AGMs, named-director pay disclosure, a formal pay-gap report covering the top 5% versus the bottom 5% of employees, and an extended 60-month window (up from 24) to declare directors delinquent.

Law firms Bowmans and Webber Wentzel both flagged the urgency, noting the new sections 30A and 30B of the Companies Act now create a formal statutory remuneration governance framework that listed and state-owned boards have to align with immediately. 

Section 30(4)(a) was tightened so disclosures must include the pay and benefits of each individual director and prescribed officer, both named. The pay-gap rule forces companies to disclose the average and median total remuneration of all employees alongside the gap between the top 5% and bottom 5% earners, a disclosure that South Africa is one of the first major economies to mandate at this granularity. 

The 60-month delinquency window came directly out of the State Capture Commission's recommendations on Section 162, designed to give the courts more room to claw back losses. One unintended consequence flagged by legal commentators: companies trying to optimise their pay-gap ratio may quietly cut the lowest-paid roles or outsource them, which would technically improve the disclosure while making the underlying inequality worse.

Three months ago, the 2026 budget delivered the first meaningful small business reform South Africa has seen in 17 years: VAT threshold up to R2.3m, turnover tax breaks, and CGT thresholds raised. 

SMEs got breathing room. On 22 May, listed and state-owned SA got the opposite: a Companies Act bundle signed in 2024 dropped into immediate effect with no transition window, more disclosure, more committee work, and more ways for directors to land on the wrong side of a 60-month delinquency clock. 

Both can be defensible policies. What's harder to defend is the pacing. The reforms that founders actually asked for, crawling through 17 years of inertia before landing as an inflation catch-up. 

The pay-gap rules sat in a drawer for 17 months and then arrived without warning. SA doesn't lack policy ideas; it lacks a delivery rhythm, and until that changes, expect more of this: The business reform the country needs trickling out years late, and the compliance load dropping overnight.

You might also like our piece on Lincoln City turnaround story, how digital stokvel tech is reshaping SA savings, and the developer career frameworks gap that's about to collide with pay-gap reporting.

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