On 31 March 2026, the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment published the National Dust Control Regulations, 2026 (2026 Regulations) under the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act, 2004 (NEMAQA), replacing the 2013 National Dust Control Regulations (2013 Regulations) with immediate effect. The biggest change is the shift from a reactive approach, under which dust management plans were only required after an exceedance, to a proactive one requiring upfront plan. The scope of who is covered has also been significantly widened.
Topic | 2013 Regulations | 2026 Regulations |
Applicable Persons | Only applied to persons who had already exceeded the dustfall standard or where specifically required through written notice by the air quality officer. | Applies to mining and prospecting right/permit holders; persons doing reclamation; persons conducting NEMAQA listed activities; controlled emitters; and anyone suspected of causing a dust nuisance. |
Dustfall Monitoring Programme | Only required where the air quality officer suspected a breach or where a fugitive dust plan was needed. | Can now be required by the air quality officer or licensing authority as part of the dust management plan, without any specific trigger. |
Standard Test Method | ASTM D1739:1970 or equivalent method. | SANS 1137 or equivalent. Operations must transition from the old ASTM method by 30 September 2026. |
Prescribed Dustfall Rates | Residential: D < 600 mg/m²/day; non-residential: 600 < D < 1 200 mg/m²/day. Max 2 exceedances per year, not in sequential months. |
Implementation Reporting | At agreed intervals; no set content requirements. | Monthly (or as required by the authority), and must now cover dust control measures taken, how complaints were handled, and a dustfall monitoring report (if required). |
Dust Management Plan Trigger | Reactive, only needed after a dustfall exceedance, and only within 3 months of the monitoring report. | Mining and prospecting right/permit holders, persons doing reclamation, and persons conducting NEMAQA listed activities should have submitted a dust management plan by 30 May 2026, whether there has been any exceedance. Persons who had not yet commenced these activities prior to the coming into operation of the Regulations must develop and submit a dust management plan prior to commencement. |
Review of Approved DMP | No formal review process. | The authority can now require a review if: dustfall rates are exceeded; dust controls are not working; or new or expanded dust-generating activities are introduced.
The reviewed plan must be submitted within 60 days. |
Offences | Limited to breaches of the monitoring and dust management plan rules. | Much wider, now includes failures to submit dust management plans, implementation reports, reviewed plans, and non-compliance with the transitional provisions. |
Penalties | First offence: fine up to R5 million or up to 5 years' imprisonment. Repeat offence: fine up to R10 million or up to 10 years, or both. | Same fine and imprisonment levels, but because the list of offences is now much wider, the practical exposure is significantly greater. |
What's new and when you need to act
The 2026 Regulations took effect on 31 March 2026. The key deadlines are:
- 30 May 2026: mining, prospecting, reclamation and listed activity operators must have submitted their dust management plans to the relevant air quality officer or licensing authority;
- 30 May 2026: anyone who already had an approved dust management plan must have submitted a revised version that meets the new requirements;
- 30 September 2026: all operations must have switched from the old ASTM D1739:1970 test method to SANS 1137;
- ongoing: implementation reports must be submitted monthly (or as otherwise required) from the date the dust management plan is approved; and
- controlled emitters and suspected dust nuisance sources: must submit a dust management plan within the timeframe set by the air quality officer (up to 60 days) after receiving a written notice.
The 60-day deadline for new and revised dust management plans has already passed. Any person who has not yet submitted is at risk of prosecution. Other practical points to note:
- monthly reporting is a significant step up from the old "agreed intervals" approach, especially for operations spread across multiple municipalities;
- the switch to SANS 1137 means your laboratory must be SANAS-accredited for the new method. This should be checked now, as the 30 September 2026 deadline is approaching;
- if you have not yet started dust-generating activities, you must have a dust management plan in place before you begin, this could delay new mining or industrial projects; and
- there is no grace period for first-time non-compliance, and each failure, whether a missing plan, a late report, or an unsubmitted review, is a separate offence that can be prosecuted independently.
What the enforcement record tells you about risk
- The DFFE's annual National Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Reports (NECER) show that environmental enforcement is not theoretical. Before 2021, dust rarely appeared as a standalone finding. From 2021/22 onwards, facilities began to be cited for breaching the Dust Control Regulations by name, and by 2023/24 multiple facilities across the ferro-alloy, sugar, paper and pulp, fertiliser, steel, and power generation sectors were subject to escalating enforcement action, concentrated in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
- Several facilities have appeared across three consecutive annual reports without resolution, showing both that authorities do not drop enforcement matters and that the old administrative process was too slow. The 2026 Regulations were introduced in direct response to these gaps.
- The NECER reports do not cover enforcement by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, so dust offences in the mining sector fall entirely outside the published statistics. The true scale of non-compliance is significantly larger than the figures suggest.
- The bottom line is that the 2026 Regulations exist because the old framework was not working. With a wider scope of offences, mandatory upfront dust management plans, and penalties of up to ZAR 5 million per offence, the enforcement tools are now significantly stronger. Operations that treat dust compliance as a low priority face real and growing risk.
If you have not already done so, act now to get your compliance in order.
