The South African Bureau of Standards is an autonomous body established as a result of an act of Parliament. The legislation concerning the SABS has been promulgated several times to cater for changing circumstances and to amend the scope of activities of SABS.

The group offers a full spectrum of standards development, information and conformity assessment services. By reorganizing the entity over the past few years it has managed to separate many of the activities to ensure impartiality and proper accountability of subsidy grants.

SABS has a proud record of participation in the development of international standards, and as an established standards body in a developing region, SABS has a significant role to play in the development of a Standards, Quality assurance, Accreditation and Metrology (SQAM) infrastructure in the South African Development Community (SADC). SABS hosts the secretariat of the regional standard coordination forum, SADCSTAN, and the legal metrology group, SADCMEL.

SABS is committed to providing standardization services that improve the competitiveness of South Africa through the understanding and development of standardization products and services within South Africa and internationally.