Your contract with a department is signed, the work is delivered, the invoice is in. Are they legally obliged to pay you within 30 days?
Usually yes. The detail is in “usually”, and the detail is where finance teams lose weeks.
What the law says
- Departments, trading entities and constitutional institutions. PFMA section 38(1)(f) and Treasury Regulation 8.2.3: “Unless determined otherwise in a contract or other agreement, all payments due to creditors must be settled within 30 days from receipt of an invoice.”
- Municipalities and municipal entities. MFMA section 65(2)(e) and section 99(2)(b): all reasonable steps to pay within 30 days of receiving the invoice or statement.
- Reporting. Treasury Instruction 34 makes every department report, by the 7th of each month, the invoices paid late and the reasons. That is where the national figures come from: 475,421 invoices paid late in 2025/26, worth R45.3 billion.
- Consequences. Treasury’s 2025/26 report states that wilful or negligent late payment by an accounting officer is financial misconduct under PFMA section 83.
Which invoices it covers
An invoice falls under the rule when all of these are true:
- the institution is bound by it (see below);
- the work was ordered through a valid official order, purchase order or signed contract;
- the goods were delivered or the service rendered, and the institution has accepted it;
- it is a valid SARS tax invoice quoting the order number and naming the institution exactly as the order does;
- your business is on the Central Supplier Database with a verified bank account;
- the amount is not in genuine dispute.
Where it stops
| Situation | What happens to the 30 days |
|---|---|
| Your contract sets its own period | The contract applies. If you signed 60 days, you agreed to 60 days |
| The invoice is in genuine dispute | Payment can lawfully wait for the dispute to be resolved |
| The acceptance record or delivery note is missing | The institution treats the invoice as incomplete |
| No valid order, or work before the order | The expenditure may be irregular and payment can stall indefinitely |
| Your tax status is red | A PFMA institution may not hold back payment for accepted, undisputed work on that ground (Instruction 09 of 2017/18), though red status can cost you the next award |
| The client is a state-owned company or Schedule 3 entity | Treasury calls the 30 days best practice. Your contract governs |
That last row matters more than most suppliers realise. Eskom, Transnet, Denel, the SETAs and the provincial development agencies sit in PFMA Schedules 2 and 3. For them, the payment terms you negotiate are the only terms you have.
The date the clock starts
The 30 days run from the date the institution receives the invoice. Two consequences follow.
First, you need proof of that date for every invoice: a portal receipt, an acknowledgement email or a date stamp. Without it, your 30 days start whenever the client says they did.
Second, “received” tends to mean received complete. Our research found at least one provincial circular that re-dates receipt to the day the last supporting document arrives. If your invoice goes without its acceptance record, the clock may never have started, and your “60 days overdue” is zero days overdue in their system.
What to do with this
- Read the payment clause of every government contract you hold. List the ones that set a period other than 30 days.
- For each client, write down whether it is bound by the rule or by your contract alone.
- Keep proof of the receipt date on file with each invoice, from the next invoice onwards.
- Send the complete pack every time, so the clock starts on the day you think it does.
A finance team that does these four things can hold a department to the law. One that does not is negotiating from memory.
We wrote a full brief on the rule, with the escalation route, the legal notes and the list of institutions it binds. It is free to share with your finance, sales and project teams. Download the 30-day rule brief · Book a Stuck Invoice Diagnostic · Back to the guide
General information for suppliers as at November 2026. It does not replace advice from an attorney on a specific claim.
Book a Stuck Invoice Diagnostic · Cash Release Calculator · The full guide: getting paid by government on time
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