2 September 2026 · Dealers · Gqeberha

The walk-around self-audit for second-hand goods dealers

A checklist you can answer today by looking at something. It is not a legal audit, and ticking every box does not make anyone compliant — but it shows you the gaps that are visible from the shop floor.

Second-hand goods dealer: walk-around self-audit

Print this, take a pen, and walk your own premises. Most items are a yes or no you can answer today by looking at something. Where we could not pin the law down well enough to give you a clean yes or no, we say so under the item rather than pretend. Each item carries the section or regulation it comes from, in brackets, so you can check us.

What this is not. It is not a legal audit, and it is not advice on your particular business. Ticking every box here does not make you compliant, and neither does any software, including ours. What a checklist can do is show you the gaps that are visible from the shop floor. What it cannot do is tell you how a court or an inspecting officer would treat your specific facts.

One thing before you start. If you have been told that belonging to an accredited association exempts you from this Act, be careful. Section 42 exempts association members only so far as the Minister has actually published a notice in the Gazette exempting them. Membership alone does not do it. Ask your association to show you the notice and what it covers. [s.42(1)(b)]

One more piece of honesty. This checklist was written from the Act as gazetted in 2009, a consolidation of the Act stated to be updated to 30 April 2012, and the Second-Hand Goods Regulations published as GN R285 in Government Gazette 35220 on 3 April 2012. We say below where a point is thinner than the rest. We did not check whether the Act or those Regulations have been amended since. Check anything below that costs you money against the current in-force text.

One gap you should know about. SAPS issues National Instruction 2 of 2016 for second-hand goods dealers and recyclers. It sets out how officers are to handle inspections and dealer paperwork, and it may impose or describe steps this checklist does not cover — we could not read it reliably and have deliberately published nothing from it. Ask your local SAPS second-hand goods desk for it, or your accredited association.

1. The certificate on the wall

• Is the original certificate of registration on display, in a prominent place clearly visible to the public, on the premises it was issued for? A laminated photocopy behind the counter is a failure on the face of the section. [s.15(a)]
• Is that certificate undamaged and legible enough to be produced as it stands? [s.15(b)]
• Are you registered at all? Every person who carries on business as a dealer must be registered. [s.2(1)] If you trade through a company or CC, a natural person who is not disqualified must be appointed to manage and be responsible for the business, and that person carries the same duties and liability as the registered dealer — check who is named. [s.2(2)–(3), single-source, not corroborated]
• Does the register you actually use match the principal business activity printed on that certificate — general dealer, auctioneer, jeweller, vehicle dealer or scrap metal dealer? [reg 9]
  • Note the shape of the forms. Annexure B sets out a separate acquisition register and a separate disposal register for each of the five dealer types. If you run one combined in-and-out book, check it against both annexure forms for your activity before you assume it passes.
• If your certificate carries a condition requiring separate registers for different classes of goods, do you keep them separately? [s.21(3)]

2. The register itself

• Is your register essentially in the prescribed form, and does it contain the prescribed particulars? Regulation 8(1) uses the word "essentially", which matters — it does not demand a pixel-perfect copy of the gazetted table. The form lives in Annexure B of the Regulations for Dealers and Recyclers, 2012, published as GN R285 in Government Gazette 35220 of 3 April 2012. [s.21(1); reg 8(1)]
  • Uncertain, and it matters. We could not read the Annexure B tables reliably. They are in the gazette as machine-read text that scrambles the column order, so we cannot tell you what the columns are or in what order, and we will not guess. Compare your book against a printed copy of the gazetted annexure, not against anyone's summary, including ours.
• For every purchase, does the book carry the seller's full names, contact address and contact telephone number? [s.21(2)(a)(i)] And the seller's identity number? [s.21(2)(a)(iii)]
• Separately from the ID number, is there a column recording how you checked the person was who they said they were — for example, "original smart ID card inspected", "original green barcoded ID book inspected" or "original passport inspected"? [s.21(2)(a)(ii)]
  • Note. This is the one dealers most often miss. Recording the ID number does not discharge it. A register with an ID number column and no "how verified" column is short of what the section asks for on its face. The Act does not define "identity document" and does not prescribe the wording — the examples above are ours, not the statute's.
• For each item, does the entry carry a description plus serial number or distinguishing mark, the price you paid, the stock number you assigned, the name and signature of the staff member who did the deal, and the date and time? [s.21(2)(b)–(f)]
  • Careful. Section 21(2) says the particulars "must at least include" this list. It is a floor, not a ceiling. The prescribed Annexure B form, and any condition written on your own certificate of registration, may require more — never less. Read the conditions on your certificate.
• Are disposals written up as well as acquisitions — the date the goods were sold, or an account of how and when they otherwise left your hands? [s.21(1); s.21(2)(f)] Note that "acquire" in this Act covers taking goods in by any means, including importing them. [s.1]
• Is each entry made at the moment of the deal, not caught up that evening or over the weekend? [s.21(7)] Look at today's page. If it is blank and you have bought something this morning, you have your answer.

Do not read the register items as paperwork. Section 32(2) allows a fine, or imprisonment up to the maximum in Schedule 3, or both, for a contravention of or failure to comply with any section listed in that Schedule — and the Schedule 3 rows we retrieved list section 21 as well as section 23. Two cautions on that. We could confirm the Schedule 3 row for section 23 against two sources; the section 21 rows came from a single uncorroborated pass, so we are not printing a figure for them. And we were never able to read section 32(1), the subsection that lists the offences themselves. Treat the register as carrying real criminal risk, and check section 32 and Schedule 3 yourself. [s.32(2) confirmed; Schedule 3 rows for s.21 single-source; s.32(1) not read]

3. The goods on the floor

• Pick something you bought in the last week. Has anything been delivered to any person — not just a buyer, but a repairer, courier, agent or anyone else — or reshaped or altered in appearance, before seven days had passed from the date you acquired it? [s.23(1)(d)]
  • Penalty. A section 23 breach can draw a fine, or imprisonment of up to 10 years, or both — the 10 years is a ceiling, not a sentence, and a court may impose a fine instead. [s.32(2); Schedule 3] The penalty formula in section 32(2) and the Schedule 3 row for section 23 were both confirmed. We were not able to read section 32(1), the provision that lists the offences themselves, so confirm the chain against the gazette before you rely on this.
  • Early release. We searched the Act and found no provision permitting early release inside the seven days. We did not search the Regulations for one, and we could not read the statute directly, so treat this as "we found none", not "there is none". Section 39 lets the National Commissioner extend a period. It is not a route to shortening one. [s.39, single-source, not corroborated]
  • Counting the days. We could not establish whether the day of acquisition counts as day one, so we are not giving you a worked example.
• Are goods still inside that window — and any pawned goods still subject to a pledge — kept separate from all other goods of the same or similar kind and description? [s.23(2), single-source, not corroborated] The separation duty does not end when the seven days end: it runs for as long as pawned goods are subject to a pledge.
• Are you leaving cheap items out of the book? Goods worth less than R100 fall outside the definition of second-hand goods. Goods worth exactly R100 are inside it — the wording is "less than R100", not "R100 or less". [s.1] Treat this figure with caution: it was set in 2009 and we could not confirm it has ever been uprated or that it still reads R100 today. Check before you rely on it.
• Are goods stored anywhere other than the premises your certificate was issued for? [s.23(1)(b)]
• Do you acquire goods — by purchase or by any other means — or take goods in pawn, from anyone under 18? [s.23(1)(a)]
• Do you take firearms or ammunition in pawn? [s.23(1)(e)]
• Do you take goods in without reasonable grounds to believe the seller owns them or may dispose of them? [s.23(1)(c)]
  • There is more to this than refusing the deal. Regulation 10 of the 2012 regulations is headed "Report of false information or stolen goods", and regulation 15 lists breach of regulation 10(1) or (4) as an offence. We confirmed that regulation 10 exists under that heading; the regulation 15 list rests on a single uncorroborated reading. We did not read regulation 10's text, so we cannot tell you what it requires you to report or to whom. Read regulation 10 before you next turn away a seller you were suspicious of.

Marked uncertain: we have the wording of section 23(1)(a), (b), (c) and (e), and of section 23(2), from a single retrieval pass and could not corroborate it word for word. The substance is what we would expect, but read section 23 yourself before you act on the detail.

4. The ID copies

• Do you insist on seeing an original identity document or passport, together with the customer's full name and physical address? A photograph, a photocopy or a scan on a phone does not satisfy the section. [s.21(4)]
• Do you obtain and keep an actual copy of that ID book or passport, filed and findable? [s.21(5)] This is a separate duty from writing the number into the register. Doing one does not do the other. Note also that this is the customer's ID at each transaction. It is a different obligation from anything you filed about your own identity when you applied to register — those are two separate duties and must not be treated as one.
• Pick a transaction from four years ago. Can you produce both the register entry and the ID copy for it? Both must be kept for at least five years, counted from the date of that transaction — not from when the book was filled or closed. [s.21(6)] So one book can hold entries with different expiry dates.
• Five years is a floor, not a licence to keep them forever. Those ID copies are personal information and you are the responsible party for them. POPIA requires you to secure them while you hold them [POPIA s.19], and to destroy, delete or de-identify them, in a way that prevents reconstruction, once you are no longer authorised to retain them [POPIA s.14(4)–(5)]. Have a rule for what leaves the file, not only for what enters it. See the POPIA note near the end of this page.

5. The electronic setup

If you keep a paper book and nothing else, this section does not apply to you. A paper register kept properly is a register. Skip to "If an officer walks in" — that part applies to you in full.

• If any register is kept on a computer: could an inspecting police official sit down and view that register inside the software itself? [reg 8(2)]
• On an inspection, could you hand over the most recent certificate that the records were inspected, plus a compact disk or other similar storage device holding every transaction since that certificate, and print out your stock on hand if reasonably asked? [reg 8(3)]
  • First warning. The provision says "compact disk or other similar storage device". We cannot tell you that a USB stick or an emailed file definitively satisfies it, because the text does not settle that question.
  • Second warning. Failure on regulation 8(3) is listed as an offence in regulation 15 — but that is one of several findings on this page that rest on a single uncorroborated reading, and the others are flagged where they appear. Verify it directly before you treat any penalty figure as fact.

If an officer walks in

Whenever business activity in second-hand goods is taking place — which is not necessarily only your advertised trading hours — a police official may enter and require you to produce your certificate of registration, any register, record, book or other document relating to the goods in or on the premises, and the goods themselves, and to explain any entry — or the absence of an entry. You and your staff must assist, not merely tolerate the visit. [s.28(1), s.28(3)]

If the officer finds that your way of dealing, your record-keeping or your storage breaks the Act, he may order you to stop it immediately, and he may give you a period of no more than seven days to put it right. [s.28(2)] Get the date, and what exactly must change, in writing if you can.

The duty to inspect is on SAPS, not on you: a police official must conduct at least one comprehensive inspection of each registered premises every year, and at that inspection your section 21(1) records must be examined. You do not have to arrange it, and nothing goes against you if it does not happen — but be ready for it. [s.28(4)(a)]

Before exercising any power under this Chapter of the Act, the officer must identify himself and produce his appointment certificate from the National Commissioner — a different document from your registration certificate. [s.27, single-source, not corroborated] Do not treat this as a reason to withhold cooperation: section 28(3) obliges you and your staff to assist, and refusing carries its own exposure. Note the point, raise it politely, comply.

One correction worth knowing, because guidance gets this wrong. When an officer inspects your register he must either sign his name immediately after the last entry, with his number, rank and the date, or certify the inspection in the manner the National Commissioner directs. The two are alternatives, joined by "or". [s.28(4)(b)] So do not insist on a signature in the book as an absolute entitlement.

Section 28(4)(b)(ii) itself puts the duty on the officer, not on you: he certifies, in the manner the National Commissioner directs, that the records were inspected. The Act uses the verb "certify" and does not require you to display anything under that subparagraph. But note the tension, and the separate point in section 5 above. The 2012 Regulations do refer to "the most recent certificate contemplated in section 28(4)(b)(ii) of the Act", and if you keep an electronic register you must produce it when an officer inspects [reg 8(3)(a)(i)] — a failure that regulation 15 lists as an offence. So whatever the officer leaves you or signs as proof of an inspection, keep it. Do not discard it.

A second law: POPIA

This checklist covers the Second-Hand Goods Act and its regulations only. A second law, the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013, applies to the same ID copies and register entries. Three things follow. One: securing that information is your duty as responsible party, not your software supplier's [POPIA s.19]. Two: once you are no longer authorised to retain the records, you must destroy, delete or de-identify them so they cannot be reconstructed [POPIA s.14(4)–(5)] — keeping them "just in case" is not neutral. POPIA does allow you to keep records where the law requires or authorises it [POPIA s.14(1)(a)], so the five-year rule and POPIA do not conflict. Three: if you use any hosted or cloud system — one where your register sits on somebody else's computer — POPIA requires a written contract binding that supplier to establish and maintain the section 19 security measures [POPIA s.21(1)]. The section puts that duty on you, so an unsigned agreement is your breach, not the supplier's. Ask your supplier for it, and if they do not know what you are asking for, that is your answer. (Our own dealer edition keeps the register on your device rather than on our server, so on our reading that duty does not arise for the register itself — but that is our reading of our own setup, not legal advice, and it does not help you with anything else you host anywhere.) POPIA duties are outside this checklist and need separate advice. We also did not check whether these POPIA sections have been amended since 2013.

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