COMPLIANCE WITH THE LEGAL DEPOSIT ACT NO. 54 OF 1997 

Publishers' responsibilities in terms of Section 2 of the Legal Deposit Act

Deposit of documents and information 

2. (1) A publisher shall for each published document supply to the
prescribed places of legal deposit the prescribed number of copies in the format and of the quality prescribed for each version and type of medium: Provided that the prescribed number of copies of documents other than official publications shall not exceed five.
     (2) A publisher shall for each published document furnish the State Library with the prescribed information pertaining to that document.

Cost

3. The cost of documents supplied in terms of section 2 (1) and of the
information furnished in terms of section 2 (2) and of the supply and furnishing of such documents and information shall be borne by the publisher.

Time of Deposit

4. Unless otherwise prescribed, the publisher shall dispatch a document
contemplated in section 2 (1) and furnish the information contemplated in section 2 (2) within 14 days of the day on which the document is published.

Exemptions

5. (1) (a) If, owing to the high unit cost of publishing any particular
document, or its unique or labour-intensive production method, the publisher of such document is likely to suffer serious financial or other hardship should he or she supply a copy of the document free of charge to every place of legal deposit in terms of section 2 (1), the Minister may, upon application from the publisher and after consultation with the Committee, exempt such publisher from the obligation to supply a copy of such document to such place or places of legal deposit as may be specified by the Minister.
          (b) The Minister shall not exempt a publisher under paragraph (a) from his or her obligation to supply a copy of a document to the South African Library [now National Library of South Africa] or the National Film, Video and Sound Archives, as the case may be, and to furnish the State Library [now National Library of South Africa] with the information contemplated in section 2 (2).

Deposits:

For print material, you will need to deposit in all 5 legal deposit repositories, namely:

  1. Bessie Head Library (Msunduzi Public Library Services)  
  2. Bloemfontein Public Library (Mangaung Public Library Services)
  3. National Film, Video and Sound Archives 
  4. National Library of South Africa 
  5. Parliament Library (SA) 

For electronic material/e-books, you will need to submit to the National Library of South Africa 

Please see: the Legal Deposit Act  No. 54 of 1997 and Regulations of 2000