The words, in plain language

It does not stand on its own. It contains instructions like 'insert section 66A after section 66'. To know the law you read the principal Act with the amendments applied.

For example: The National Land Transport Amendment Act 23 of 2023 inserted section 66A into the 2009 Act.

Any document that creates something you must do: an Act of Parliament, regulations, a standard, your own company policy, or a tender you have bid on. Obligance treats them all the same way so one mechanism covers the law, your policies and your contracts.

For example: The National Land Transport Amendment Act 23 of 2023 is an authority.

A citation names the document and the precise place inside it. Obligance attaches one to every duty so you can always see what was actually written, rather than somebody's summary of it.

For example: s 66A(6)(b) of the National Land Transport Amendment Act 23 of 2023.

The date a law actually starts applying.

For example: Section 66A was signed in June 2024 but only commenced in September 2025, with 180 days to comply.

Your own policies, a code of conduct you signed up to, promises made in a tender. Breaking one is not usually a crime, but it can lose you the contract or the certification.

Government publishes proposed rules so the public can object before they become binding. Draft text often changes before it is finalised, so planning against a draft is a real risk.

Not the same as: The final version. They frequently have the same title and look identical.

One specific thing you have to do, taken from a provision.

For example: 'Disconnect any vehicle without a valid operating licence' is a duty drawn from section 66A(6)(b).

Regulations are only valid if an Act authorised them. The enabling provision is that authorisation. Obligance will not accept subordinate legislation without it, because regulations with no parent cannot be relied on.

For example: Section 66A(4)(a)(i).

Saying a duty is met is not compliance; showing it is. Obligance asks for a document, record or screenshot against each duty so an inspection has something to look at.

Nothing is law until it appears here. Each issue has a number, and each item inside it has a notice number. Quoting both is how you prove which version you read.

For example: GG 50800 of 11 June 2024.

Useful for understanding how a rule will be enforced, but you cannot be prosecuted for departing from guidance alone.

An Act can be passed and signed and still not be in force. It becomes binding on a commencement date, which is often announced separately and sometimes years later.

Breaking this is a crime, not just a breach.

For example: Section 66A(7) makes failing to disconnect an unlicensed vehicle an offence.

The original Act, before any changes were made to it.

For example: The National Land Transport Act 5 of 2009.

Documents are divided into numbered parts so people can point at one sentence rather than the whole book. In an Act those parts are called sections; in regulations they are called regulations; in a contract or policy they are called clauses. 'Provision' is the general word for any of them.

For example: Section 66A(6)(b) is a provision. It says a platform must disconnect a vehicle that has no valid operating licence.

Not the same as: A 'provision' in accounting, which is money set aside. Unrelated.

Cancelled. It no longer applies.

Laws, regulations, licence conditions, court orders. The international compliance standard ISO 37301 uses this word to separate what is imposed from what you took on voluntarily.

A list or table attached to the end of a law, forming part of it.

Parliament passes the Act and leaves the detail to regulations, which a Minister makes later. Subordinate legislation is just as binding as the Act, but it only exists because a section of the Act allowed it.

For example: The Second National Land Transport Regulations were made under section 66A(4)(a)(i) of the Act.

Not the same as: The Act itself. Most day-to-day duties live in the regulations, not the Act — which is why finding only the Act is not finding the law.