South African Bureau of Standards

Last updated

South African Bureau of Standards
SABS logo.svg
Standards testing and accreditation overview
Formed1 September 1945;78 years ago (1945-09-01) [1]
Headquarters Pretoria, South Africa
25°46′10.61″S28°12′45.53″E / 25.7696139°S 28.2126472°E / -25.7696139; 28.2126472
Employees738 [2]
Minister responsible
Standards testing and accreditation executives
  • Jodi Scholtz, Lead Administrator
  • Dr Tshenge Demana, Co-Administrator
Parent department Department of Trade, Industry and Competition
Key documents
  • Standards Act, 1945
  • Standards Act, 2008
Website https://www.sabs.co.za/
Head Office of the South African Bureau of Standards in Pretoria. SABS Head Office.jpg
Head Office of the South African Bureau of Standards in Pretoria.

The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) is a South African statutory body that was established in terms of the Standards Act (Act No. 24 of 1945) [3] and continues to operate in terms of the latest edition of the Standards Act, 2008 (Act No. 29 of 2008) as the national institution for the promotion and maintenance of standardization and quality in connection with commodities and the rendering of services. [1]

Contents

Function

As the national standardization authority, the SABS is responsible for maintaining South Africa's database of more than 6,500 national standards, as well as developing new standards, revising, amending or withdrawing existing standards.

The SABS plays a critical role in ensuring safety, quality, and reliability of products and services in South Africa, and in promoting international trade through compliance with global standards. [4]

The SABS performs several essential functions [5] including:

  1. Developing and Promoting Standards: The SABS develops and promotes national standards across various sectors, including agriculture, engineering, construction, and consumer products. These standards aim to ensure safety, quality, and reliability of products and services in the country.
  2. Testing and Certification: The SABS provides testing and certification services to various industries to ensure compliance with national and international standards. This includes testing products and materials for safety and quality, and certifying companies and products that meet the required standards.
  3. Research and Innovation: The SABS conducts research and innovation activities to support the development of new standards and to improve existing ones. This includes collaborating with industry, academia, and government to identify emerging trends and technologies that may impact standards.
  4. Training and Capacity Building: The SABS provides training and capacity building services to industry, government, and the public on the development, implementation, and compliance with standards. This includes providing training on standards development, quality management, and certification processes.

Internationally, SABS experts represent South Africa's interests in the development of international standards, through their engagement with bodies such as the International organization for standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). SABS also holds the Secretariat for SADCSTAN, the standardization body for the Southern African Development Community of 14 nations.

SABS Commercial (Pty) Ltd, a self-financing division within the SABS, offers certification, testing, consignment inspection and other services, mostly to industries. Apart from offering systems certification and product testing against the requirements of South African National Standards (SANS), SABS Commercial also operates its proprietary product certification scheme – the SABS Mark of Approval, assuring buyers that products are safe, fit for purpose and provide assurance to buyers. [1]

Historically, the SABS also undertook certain regulatory functions on behalf of South Africa. In keeping with best international practice, this regulatory function was separated from the organization's standardization and certification activities, via the promulgation of the new Standards Act and the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications Act in September 2008. Under these new laws, the former SABS Regulatory division separated to form the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS), a new organization also residing under the Department of Trade and Industry. [1]

The SABS offers commercial services in seven industry clusters:

Headquartered in Groenkloof, Pretoria, the SABS also maintains offices in Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London, and operates specialized facilities at Richards Bay, Secunda, Middelburg and Saldanha.

Initiatives

South African initiative on reusable sanitary products

Coordinated by the Department of Women, the Sanitary Dignity Framework was created to improve menstrual hygiene. It establishes a framework for a consistent approach to the provision of sanitary dignity in order to safeguard and restore the dignity of disadvantaged girls and women. [6] The SABS intended to standardize the production of washable, reusable sanitary towels in August 2019. The standard was published on 6 May 2020 and is intended to help meet the diverse requirements of women and girls in South Africa who require hygiene menstrual management. [7]

Declaration on Gender-Responsive Standards and Standards Development

In 2019, the SABS signed the Declaration on Gender-Responsive Standards and Standards Development, [8] joined by more than 55 other countries, in an attempt to boost women's participation and representation in standardization. [9] The declaration was adopted by the International organization for standardization (ISO) in 2019. [10]

Related Research Articles

Conformance testing — an element of conformity assessment, and also known as compliance testing, or type testing — is testing or other activities that determine whether a process, product, or service complies with the requirements of a specification, technical standard, contract, or regulation. Testing is often either logical testing or physical testing. The test procedures may involve other criteria from mathematical testing or chemical testing. Beyond simple conformance, other requirements for efficiency, interoperability, or compliance may apply. Conformance testing may be undertaken by the producer of the product or service being assessed, by a user, or by an accredited independent organization, which can sometimes be the author of the standard being used. When testing is accompanied by certification, the products or services may then be advertised as being certified in compliance with the referred technical standard. Manufacturers and suppliers of products and services rely on such certification including listing on the certification body's website, to assure quality to the end user and that competing suppliers are on the same level.

The ISO 9000 family is a set of five quality management systems (QMS) standards by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that help organizations ensure they meet customer and other stakeholder needs within statutory and regulatory requirements related to a product or service. ISO 9000 deals with the fundamentals and vocabulary of QMS, including the seven quality management principles that underlie the family of standards. ISO 9001 deals with the requirements that organizations wishing to meet the standard must fulfill. ISO/TS 9002 offers guidelines for the application of ISO 9001. ISO 9004 gives guidance on achieving sustained organizational success.

ISO 14000 is a family of standards by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) related to environmental management that exists to help organizations (a) minimize how their operations negatively affect the environment ; (b) comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmentally oriented requirements; and (c) continually improve in the above.

UN/CEFACT is the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business. It was established as an intergovernmental body of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in 1996 and evolved from UNECE's long tradition of work in trade facilitation which began in 1957.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecolabel</span> Labeling systems for food and consumer products

Ecolabels and Green Stickers are labeling systems for food and consumer products. The use of ecolabels is voluntary, whereas green stickers are mandated by law; for example, in North America major appliances and automobiles use Energy Star. They are a form of sustainability measurement directed at consumers, intended to make it easy to take environmental concerns into account when shopping. Some labels quantify pollution or energy consumption by way of index scores or units of measurement, while others assert compliance with a set of practices or minimum requirements for sustainability or reduction of harm to the environment. Many ecolabels are focused on minimising the negative ecological impacts of primary production or resource extraction in a given sector or commodity through a set of good practices that are captured in a sustainability standard. Through a verification process, usually referred to as "certification", a farm, forest, fishery, or mine can show that it complies with a standard and earn the right to sell its products as certified through the supply chain, often resulting in a consumer-facing ecolabel.

In general, compliance means conforming to a rule, such as a specification, policy, standard or law. Compliance has traditionally been explained by reference to the deterrence theory, according to which punishing a behavior will decrease the violations both by the wrongdoer and by others. This view has been supported by economic theory, which has framed punishment in terms of costs and has explained compliance in terms of a cost-benefit equilibrium. However, psychological research on motivation provides an alternative view: granting rewards or imposing fines for a certain behavior is a form of extrinsic motivation that weakens intrinsic motivation and ultimately undermines compliance.

Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to carry out specific conformity assessment tasks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Certification</span> Formal confirmation of certain characteristics of an object, person or organization

Certification is part of testing, inspection and certification and the provision by an independent body of written assurance that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of an object, person, or organization. This confirmation is often, but not always, provided by some form of external review, education, assessment, or audit. Accreditation is a specific organization's process of certification. According to the U.S. National Council on Measurement in Education, a certification test is a credentialing test used to determine whether individuals are knowledgeable enough in a given occupational area to be labeled "competent to practice" in that area.

The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) (French: Conseil canadien des normes (CCN)) is a Canadian crown corporation with the mandate to promote voluntary standardization in Canada. The SCC is responsible for:

The National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) is the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) member body for the Republic of Ireland. The NSAI is also a member of the European Organisation for Technical Approvals.

ISO 13485Medical devices -- Quality management systems -- Requirements for regulatory purposes is a voluntary standard, published by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for the first time in 1996, and contains a comprehensive quality management system for the design and manufacture of medical devices. The latest version of this standard supersedes earlier documents such as EN 46001 and EN 46002 (1996), the previously published ISO 13485, and ISO 13488.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dental laboratory</span>

Dental laboratories manufacture or customize a variety of products to assist in the provision of oral health care by a licensed dentist. These products include crowns, bridges, dentures and other dental products. Dental lab technicians follow a prescription from a licensed dentist when manufacturing these items, which include prosthetic devices and therapeutic devices. The FDA regulates these products as medical devices and they are therefore subject to FDA's good manufacturing practice ("GMP") and quality system ("QS") requirements. In most cases, however, they are exempt from manufacturer registration requirements. Some of the most common restorations manufactured include crowns, bridges, dentures, and dental implants. Dental implants is one of the most advanced dental technologies in the field of dentistry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BSI Group</span> British standards development organization

The British Standards Institution (BSI) is the national standards body of the United Kingdom. BSI produces technical standards on a wide range of products and services and also supplies certification and standards-related services to businesses.

An environmental audit is a type of evaluation intended to identify environmental compliance and management system implementation gaps, along with related corrective actions. In this way they perform an analogous (similar) function to financial audits. There are generally two different types of environmental audits: compliance audits and management systems audits. Compliance audits tend to be the primary type in the US or within US-based multinationals.

The South African National Accreditation System (SANAS) is the official accreditation body for South Africa. Founded in 1996, SANAS is headquartered in Pretoria, South Africa. SANAS accreditation certificates are a formal recognition by the Government of South Africa that an organisation is competent to perform specific tasks.

A specification often refers to a set of documented requirements to be satisfied by a material, design, product, or service. A specification is often a type of technical standard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bureau of Indian Standards</span> Indian organization for developing standards

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the National Standards Body of India under Department of Consumer affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India. It is established by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016 which came into effect on 12 October 2017. The Minister in charge of the Ministry or Department having administrative control of the BIS is the ex-officio President of the BIS. BIS has 500 plus scientific officers working as Certification Officers, Member secretaries of technical committees and lab OIC's.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NSF International</span> Organization

NSF is a product testing, inspection, certification organization with headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. NSF also offers consulting and training services worldwide.

The Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) formerly Ghana Standards Board (GSB) is a Government of Ghana agency responsible for the maintenance of acceptable standards for product and services and sound management practices in industries and public institutions in Ghana.

The National Standardization Agency of Indonesia is the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) member body for Indonesia. BSN is a non-ministerial Indonesian government agency with the main task of carrying out governmental tasks in the field of standardization and conformity assessment in Indonesia. The agency is also responsible to develop and maintain the Indonesian National Standard.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "SABS - ABOUT SABS OVERVIEW" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  2. ↑ "SABS Annual Report 2021/22" (PDF).
  3. ↑ "South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) | South African Government". www.gov.za. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  4. ↑ "SABS". ISO. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  5. ↑ "South Africa - Standards for Trade". www.trade.gov. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  6. ↑ "Department of Women launches sanitary dignity programme in Umlazi, 3 May | South African Government". www.gov.za. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  7. ↑ "UNFPA supports training of local social enterprises on the South African National Standards (SANS) 1812:2020 on washable, reusable sanitary towels". The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). 3 October 2020.
  8. ↑ "Declaration on Gender-Responsive Standards and Standards Development | UNECE". unece.org. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  9. ↑ "South Africa: SA Commits to Empower Women in Standards Development". allAfrica.
  10. ↑ "UNECE gender declaration: one year on". ISO. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.