On September 4, 2026, South Africa's Department of Transport published Government Notice 4133 in Government Gazette 55299, amending the Second Schedule to the Merchant Shipping Act 57 of 1951 under section 356bis. The 503-page Gazette PDF substitutes that Schedule with the consolidated text of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974 (SOLAS). The published notice does not fix a later commencement date, so the substituted Schedule takes effect on Gazette publication.
Section 356bis(1) already gives the Safety Convention force of law in the Republic. Section 356bis(2) requires the Minister, as soon as practicable after an amendment enters into force for South Africa, to amend the Second Schedule by Gazette notice so that the printed South African text matches the Convention as it then stands. This notice is that Schedule update, not a new operational code written from scratch.
What did Gazette 55299 actually put into the Second Schedule?
The annexure is headed "Second Schedule" and "Consolidated text of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974". It reprints the SOLAS articles and Chapters I through XV, including verification of compliance (Chapter XIII), polar waters (Chapter XIV) and ships carrying industrial personnel (Chapter XV, IP Code certification). The Gazette contents list marks the 1988 SOLAS Protocol in square brackets, the instrument's own omission markup against the previous Schedule text.
Flag-state manuals, ISM citations and legal opinions that still point to an older Second Schedule (or to a partial reprint that stopped before the polar and industrial-personnel chapters) are now out of date as a matter of South African statute. The Convention duties themselves are not invented on September 4: what changed is the official South African print of those duties.
Who has to apply the new Schedule, and from when?
From September 4, 2026, anyone who must apply the Merchant Shipping Act's Safety Convention text in South Africa must use this Gazette, not the previous Second Schedule.
- South African-flag owners and ISM companies, including the Designated Person Ashore, must align Safety Management System references, flag-state filings and class-liaison packs with the new print.
- The South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) will survey, certify and inspect against the substituted Schedule as the force-of-law text.
- Foreign ships calling Durban, Cape Town, Richards Bay and other South African ports are measured in port State control against South Africa's force-of-law SOLAS text, which is now this consolidation.
- P&I, hull and finance counsel who cite the Second Schedule in opinions or warranties need the Gazette 55299 pagination, not a prior reprint.
This is schedule alignment rather than a new manning or construction regime: operators already apply SOLAS 1974 internationally. The compliance gap is documentary and evidential, except where a later chapter (polar waters, industrial personnel) was never carried in the old Schedule and is now printed as South African law.
How does the final notice close the February 2026 consultation?
On February 27, 2026, the Minister invited comment through GoN 7176 in Gazette 54218, under the same section 356bis(2) power, with comments due March 27, 2026. That notice was a draft. GoN 4133 is the final substitution. The Gazette header prints "NOTICE 4133 OF 2025" on a 4 September 2026 Gazette, a numbering lag; the instrument to cite is Gazette 55299, GoN 4133, dated September 4, 2026.
| Step | Instrument | Date | Legal effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comment invitation | GoN 7176, Gazette 54218 | February 27, 2026 | Draft only; comments closed March 27, 2026 |
| Final Schedule substitution | GoN 4133, Gazette 55299 | September 4, 2026 | Second Schedule replaced; in force on publication |
What should flag, port-state and legal teams do this week?
Download the Gazette PDF and treat it as the citable Second Schedule. Diff SMS and flag-state citations against Chapters XIII, XIV and XV first, then confirm whether any internal text still relies on a separately printed 1988 Protocol that this contents list marks as omitted. Brief the DPA, SAMSA liaison and port captains that port State control in South Africa now points at this consolidation. Continuous, per-jurisdiction real-time monitoring surfaces a Gazette notice the morning it is published, not after the ISM manual is already citing the wrong Schedule.
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Verify whether your ships, managers or callers into South African ports still cite the pre-September 4 Second Schedule, check polar-waters and industrial-personnel chapters if those trades apply, and brief legal, class and SAMSA contacts on the Gazette 55299 citation. Obsidian tracks South African merchant-shipping Gazette notices as they publish, so the next section 356bis update is visible when it lands, not after a surveyor asks for the current Schedule.
