Urgent: 15 Jan 2026 Employment Equity reports deadline – key information for employers
The Department of Employment and Labour has urged designated employers to submit their Employment Equity reports by the January 15 deadline.
Image: Leon Lestrade/ Independent Newspapers
The Department of Employment and Labour said the submission would mark the first year in the submission of EE Reports since the amendment of the EE Act that now requires designated employers to prepare and implement EE Plans for the period from 1 September 2025 until 31 August 2030.
The department explained that the Employment Equity Amendment Act, No. 4 of 2022, became operational from 1 January 2025.
Since then, two sets of EE Regulations on EE reporting forms and other EE templates, and the 5-year sector EE targets for the eighteen economic sectors were published on 15 April 2025 to provide guidelines to employers and employees on how to interpret and implement the EE amendments and sector EE targets.
In terms of the EE Amendment Act, designated employers will, for compliance purposes, be assessed against their own annual targets set towards meeting the relevant 5-year sectoral numerical targets.
The 5-year sectoral numerical targets are key milestones towards achieving the equitable representation of the different designated groups within the four upper occupational levels in an employer’s workforce in relation to the demographics of the applicable economically active population (EAP), and for persons with disabilities.
In terms of the EE Act, it is important that the reports submitted must contain the prescribed information and must be signed by the Chief Executive Officer of the designated employer.
The National Employers' Association of South Africa (NEASA) explained that missing the deadline to submit the EE reports may lead to Labour Court action and possible fines.
It added that employers should keep evidence of attempts to submit in case there were system glitches or the system crashed.
“It is certainly not ideal to miss the deadline, and therefore employers are advised to, should errors occur, continue their efforts to submit and to keep record of their attempts by taking screenshots of the error messages.
“Employers should not wait until the last minute on 15 January to submit in order to avoid this pitfall. Non-submission of EE reports will place designated employers in an extremely difficult position as they will simply be non-compliant. Although there is no guarantee that proof of attempts to submit and the error messages received will be accepted as an excuse, at the very least it may be used to attempt to mitigate the fallout of non-submission.”