After scrutinizing the extracted article below we believe the platform requirements for verification of guests alone to be inadequate for local (and possibly other) hosts and have recently implemented a register in compliance and urge others to consider:
“This advisory note stems from Clifford Ross, CEO of the City Lodge Hotel Group.
You may or may not be aware that as of 26 May 2014, the Immigration Act 13 of 2002 (the “Act”) has been amended. Section 40(1) of the Act, read together with Regulation 36, states that, inter alia, all hotels and motels must keep a register containing details of all persons who are provided with lodging or sleeping accommodation. The Register must, in respect of a lodger, contain:
- his or her full names and surname;
2. a copy of his or her identification document or passport;
3. his or her residence status in the Republic; and
4. his or her normal residential address.
Under the Act each lodger must sign the register and furnish the prescribed particulars regarding himself or herself.
Penalties for non-compliance, both for the guest and the premises, include:
- Guilty of an offence / crime;
2. Fine; and/or
3. Imprisonment for a period not exceeding 12 months.
Extracts from the Immigration Act and Regulations
Section 40
- Keeping of registers of lodgers by certain persons
(1) The person in charge of any premises, whether furnished or unfurnished, where lodging or sleeping accommodation is provided for payment or reward shall, if those premises fall within a prescribed class, in the prescribed manner keep a register of all persons who are provided with lodging or sleeping accommodation thereon, and every such person shall sign the register and furnish therein the prescribed particulars regarding himself or herself.
Regulation 36
Keeping of registers of lodgers by certain persons
- (1) The classes of premises contemplated in section 40(1) of the Act are-
(a) hotels and motels;
(b) boarding houses and lodges;
(c) guest houses; and
(d) apartment buildings.
In light of the above and that there is no definition in the Act of “persons”, the interpretation is that it extends to all.”
