Putting contact details on a logo, a vehicle, a sign or a business card is a design decision with legal and safety consequences. What you publish becomes permanent, gets scraped, and in the wrong circumstances gets used to impersonate you.
ContactDetails.co.za is an independent directory. This page covers what to put on business material, what to leave off, and the disclosure rules that apply to South African businesses.
What South African law requires on business documents
The Companies Act requires certain information on a company’s business letters, order forms and electronic communications. This is not optional branding, and it applies to email signatures as much as to letterheads.
- The registered name and the registration number, including the suffix that shows the type of entity.
- The registered office address, and the postal address if different.
- The names of directors, on letterheads, in the manner the Act prescribes.
- Where the company is in business rescue or liquidation, that must be stated on every business document, which is a disclosure worth checking on anyone invoicing you.
- A close corporation states its registered name and number in the same way.
What to leave off
- Personal mobile numbers on public-facing material. Once published, a number is scraped and republished indefinitely, and it stays attached to the person long after they leave the business.
- Individual staff email addresses on vehicles and signage. Use role addresses, which survive staff changes and can be monitored by more than one person.
- Home addresses. Where a business is run from home, a registered address is required but does not have to be broadcast on every surface.
- Banking details on invoices sent by email, without a verification instruction. Add a line telling clients to confirm any account change by telephone; it is the cheapest fraud control available.
- Anything you cannot commit to answering. A published number nobody answers damages a business more than one fewer channel would.
Keeping published details current
- Keep a list of everywhere your details appear: website, invoices, signage, vehicles, directories, social profiles, map listings and email signatures.
- Update the map and search listings first when you move or change numbers, because those are what most people find.
- Redirect rather than abandon. Keep an old number diverted for a period, because customers will keep using it for years.
- Claim your business listings. An unclaimed listing can be edited by others, and that is one way fraudulent numbers get attached to real businesses.
- Check periodically what a search for your business actually returns, because that is where your customers start.
A practical audit you can do in an afternoon
Most businesses have no idea how many places their contact details appear, which is why an old number keeps ringing somewhere years after it was replaced. The fix is a single list, kept once and updated whenever anything changes, covering every surface a customer might read.
Search for your own business the way a customer would, and write down everything that comes back: the website, the map listing, the directory entries, the social profiles, the review sites and any old pages still indexed. Check each against what is current. Claim the listings you can claim, correct the ones you control, and request correction on the ones you do not. That exercise is also the fastest way to discover whether anybody has attached a number to your business that does not belong to you, which is a great deal more common than most owners expect.
Questions people actually ask
Does an email signature really need company details?
Yes. The Companies Act requirements apply to electronic communications as well as printed letters, so the registered name, registration number and registered address belong in the signature block. Most South African businesses under-comply with this without realising it.
Should I put my cell number on my company vehicle?
Use a business line rather than a personal one. A number on a vehicle is photographed, scraped and republished indefinitely, and it stays attached to whoever owns it long after they leave the business. A diverted business number gives you the same reachability and none of the permanence.
Someone is using my business name and a fake number.
Report it to the platform carrying the listing, and to the police with a case number. Claim your own listings on the major map and search services, because an unclaimed listing can be edited by others and that is one route by which fraudulent numbers get attached to real businesses.
We are moving offices. What do we update first?
The map and search listings, because that is where most people look, then the website, then invoices and email signatures. Keep the old telephone number diverted for as long as you can: customers will keep using it for years regardless of what you publish.
Do I have to show directors' names on a letterhead?
A company must state its directors on its letterheads in the manner the Companies Act prescribes. If the company is in business rescue or liquidation, that must also appear on every business document, which is a disclosure worth checking on anyone invoicing you.
Regulator and ombud routes on this page were verified against their own official contact pages on 24 August 2026.