Are you a lawyer attending a court case or a round table conference and need free, easy and instant access to the latest laws before court or the meeting resumes? Are you a candidate attorney or pupil at the Bar who needs quick access to the laws of South Africa?  Or an educator that needs to quote or reproduce legislation in teaching materials? Do you feel that you have been unfairly discriminated against in the workplace? Want to check if you have a case against a medical provider after contracting a hospital-acquired infection? Need to know what the duties and obligations of an executor of an estate is? Are you specialising in international commercial law stationed in Dubai, and not having a law library stocked with South African Acts and Regulations? Fear not, as the Oliver Tambo Law Library in the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria has the solution for you - free access to the laws of South Africa at your fingertips, a click or two away on your mobile phone or laptop. 

For the past couple of years the Oliver Tambo Law Library staff members have worked hard to upload 320 Acts and their regulations to date, ensuring that the uploaded acts are up to date and amendments and addendums incorporated, providing free access to the national legislation of South Africa.  The project was initiated and supported by the University of Pretoria as it is in the interest of the South African community to have easy and instant access to the laws that govern their private and working lives.

'Individuals must know their rights and obligations, governed by the rule of law.  Businesses need to know how to comply with the law. ‘Information is the key to wisdom.  Free online access to the laws promulgated by the South African Parliament is therefore a “must have” for South African citizens and those dealing with South Africa’, says Mrs Shirley Gilmore, the Head of the ORT Law Library and the driving force behind this instrumental public information project for a number of years. She believes that ‘[a] democracy promises access to justice and thus access to the laws of the land is an integral part of access to justice. The aim is to provide free internet access to reliable and fully updated and consolidated National Acts and Regulations. And most importantly, all the Acts and Regulations that are available on the website are maintained on a weekly basis so that none of the material is ever outdated.’

An additional service is the provision of the “Historical versions” of Acts and Regulations, also known as “Point-in-time”.   

Acts and Regulations, or parts thereof, may be reproduced in training material and other material. Links to the website may be disseminated.  The idea is that it may be used freely. Downloading of large parts, or the entire database, however, are not permitted. - Editor