Amended Occupational Health and Safety Act

(1)           Whenever in any legal proceedings in terms of this Act it is proved that any person was present on or in any premises, that person shall, unless the contrary is proved, be presumed to be an employee.

(2)           In the absence of satisfactory proof of age, the age of any person shall, in any legal proceedings in terms of this Act, be presumed to be that stated by an inspector to be in his opinion the probable age of the person; but any person having an interest who is dissatisfied with that statement of opinion may, at his own expense, require that the person whose age is in question appear before and be examined by a district surgeon, and a statement contained in a certificate by a district surgeon who examined that person as to what in his opinion is the probable age of that person shall, but only for the purpose of the said proceedings, be conclusive proof of the age of that person.

(3)           In any legal proceedings in terms of this Act, any statement or entry contained in any book or document kept by any employer or user or by his employee or mandatary, or found on or in any premises occupied or used by that employer or user, and any copy or reproduction of any such statement or entry, shall be admissible in evidence against him as an admission of the facts set forth in that statement or entry, unless it is proved that that statement or entry was not made by that employer or user or by any employee or mandatary of that employer or user within the scope of his authority.

(4)           Whenever in any legal proceedings in terms of this Act it is proved that any untrue statement or entry is contained in any record kept by any person, he shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, wilfully to have falsified that record.

(5)           (a) Whenever at the trial of any person charged with a contravention of section 22 it is proved that the accused sold or marketed any article, substance, plant, machinery or health and safety equipment contemplated in that section, it shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, that such article, substance, plant, machinery or health and safety equipment did not at the time of the sale or marketing thereof comply with the said requirements.

(b)  At any trial any document purporting to be a certificate or statement by an approved inspection authority and in which it is alleged that the article, substance, plant, machinery or health and safety equipment forming the subject of the charge complies with the requirements prescribed in respect thereof or with any particular standard, shall on its mere production at that trial by or on behalf of the accused be accepted as prima facie proof of the facts stated therein.

(6)           Notwithstanding the provisions of section 31 (3) of the Standards Act, 1993 (Act No. 29 of 1993), whenever in any legal proceedings in terms of this Act the question arises whether any document contains the text of a health and safety standard incorporated in the regulations under section 44, any document purporting to be a statement by a person who in that statement alleges that he is an inspector and that a particular document contains the said text, shall on its mere production at those proceedings by any person be prima facie proof of the facts stated therein.

(7)           The records to be kept by a health and safety committee in terms of section 20 (2), including any document purporting to be certified by an inspector as a true extract from any such records, shall on their mere production at any legal proceedings by any person be admissible as evidence of the fact that a recommendation or report recorded in such records was made by a health and safety committee to an employer or inspector concerned.