Unlike many other countries, South Africa currently does not have any dedicated legislation dealing with e-waste.

This does not imply that South Africa has no legislation covering hazardous substances or waste, or the management and disposal thereof. Answers are certainly found in laws governing topics like the environment, water, air, waste, hazardous substances as well as health and safety. International legislation - in the form of Conventions, Agreements, Treaties etc – has, in our opinion, only limited application for present purposes in South Africa since the majority of e-waste would probably be from local sources, as opposed to imported old or broken electronic/electrical equipment entering the country for recycling or treatment purposes.

Of importance would be the The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (1989) since it covers several toxic components found in e-waste (see eg. Annexes I, III and IV). South Africa is a signatory to the Convention. It is, unfortunately, still a great area whether e-waste strictly speaking must be regarded as hazardous waste for purposes of this Convention, although there is no reason why it should not be seen as such.

For more see A Review of South African Environmental and General Legislation governing e-waste. FINAL Report. Mark Dittke. Review prepared for: Electronic Waste Association of South Africa (eWASA). Supported by the: Swiss e-Waste Programme, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa). April 2007