Licensing and certification

If you operate one of the following businesses, you will need a permit or licence to operate in Cape Town:

• Sellers or suppliers of meals of any sort, whether formal or informal
• Health facilities (turkish baths, saunas or health baths) massage or infra-red treatment
• Escort services
• Mechanical, electrical apparatuses or devices (games) 3 or more.
• Snooker or billiard tables
• A cinema or theatre
• Adult shopping
• Night clubs or discotheques

For fixed commercial sites and businesses, before your business licence application will be granted, you will need the following documentation:

• Land use clearance certificate
• Copy of ID document/passport of owner
• Copy of the ID document/passport of managing director of company or main member of CC
• Population and clearance certificate from fire prevention officer
• Certificate of acceptability
• Copy of approved building plan of the interior layout of the premises

If you need more insights into how to manage your commercial property, please visit our commercial properties section.

Compliant business environments and buildings

Many business-related alterations and additions to buildings must comply with certain specifications in their layout and/or construction.

We have a series of handy guidelines to assist you with the application and compliance process for the following kinds of businesses and commercial environments:

• Artificial ventilation requirements
• Creches - application procedure and standards
• Facilities for the disabled
• Healthy disposal of household waste
• Horse stables
• Informal hairdressers and barbers
• Informal hawking and trading structures
• List of notifiable medical conditions
• Mechanical air requirements for different occupancy classifications
• Occupancy classification, population and sanitary facilities - SABS Code 0400 of 1990 – table
• Operating an informal food hawking or vending business
• Refuse storage areas
• Requirements - new smoking legislation
• Septic tanks, soakaways and conservancy tanks
• Smoking rooms and areas

Document downloads