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Ethics in Psychological Assessment in South Africa: What Practitioners Need to Know

Psychological assessment in South Africa operates within one of the most complex regulatory frameworks of any country in the world. Two pieces of legislation — the Health Professions Act and the Employment Equity Act — govern who may use psychological tests, which tests may be used, and how they must be applied. Furthermore, a significant legal and regulatory shift came into effect on 1 January 2025 that every practitioner involved in assessment needs to understand. This guide gives you a verified, practical breakdown of the ethics of psychological assessment in South Africa and what the 2025 changes mean for your practice.

If your CPD for 2026 needs to include ethics content — and it does, at a minimum of 5 ethics CEUs per year — explore the PsyCampus psychometry CPD package and the industrial psychology CPD package, both of which include ethics content directly relevant to assessment practice.

The Legal Framework Governing Ethics in Psychological Assessment South Africa

Two key pieces of legislation underpin the ethical and legal framework for psychological assessment in South Africa (Assessment Standards South Africa, 2025):

The Health Professions Act (Act No. 56 of 1974) specifies that only HPCSA-registered psychology practitioners may perform psychological acts. Consequently, administering, scoring, interpreting, or reporting on a psychological test is a professional act that requires appropriate HPCSA registration. Specifically, psychologists may administer any psychological test in which they have been trained. Psychometrists may administer psychological tests in which they have been trained — with the exception of projective tests, neuropsychological tests, and tests designed to diagnose psychopathology, which fall exclusively within the scope of psychologists. Registered counsellors have a more limited range of approved tests (Psytech South Africa, 2025).

The Employment Equity Act (Act No. 55 of 1998), Section 8 prohibits the use of psychological assessments in the workplace unless the test is scientifically valid, reliable, fairly applied, and free from bias — particularly in the context of South Africa’s diverse cultural and linguistic population (Assessment Standards South Africa, 2025). These requirements apply to any assessment that resembles a psychological test, whether or not it formally measures a psychological construct.

What Changed on 1 January 2025: The Employment Equity Amendment Act

The Employment Equity Amendment Act No. 4 of 2022 came into effect on 1 January 2025. The most significant change for psychology practitioners is the removal of the HPCSA certification requirement for psychological assessments used in employment contexts (PsySSA, 2025).

Previously, Section 8(d) of the Employment Equity Act required all psychological tests used in employment to be certified by the HPCSA. However, a 2017 High Court ruling had already found this requirement irrational — ruling that the HPCSA classifies tests rather than certifies them, and that no tests had in fact ever been formally certified under this provision. The Employment Equity Amendment Act formalises this change by removing Section 8(d) entirely (PsySSA, 2025).

Critically, this change does not remove the other three requirements under Section 8. Specifically, assessments used in employment must still be:

  • Scientifically valid for the purpose for which they are used
  • Reliable in the South African context
  • Fairly applied and free from bias across the diverse South African population

Furthermore, the HPCSA classification requirement remains fully in place. Tests that measure psychological constructs must still be classified as psychological tests by the HPCSA’s Professional Practice Committee, and may only be used by appropriately registered psychology professionals (PsySSA, 2025).

HPCSA Classification vs Certification: Understanding the Difference

This distinction is one of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of assessment practice in South Africa, and it carries significant ethical and legal implications.

ConceptWhat it meansWho is responsible
HPCSA ClassificationDetermines whether a test measures a psychological construct. If yes, only HPCSA-registered practitioners may use it.HPCSA Professional Practice Committee
HPCSA Certification (removed)Was intended to confirm EEA compliance — validity, reliability, fairness. Never operationalised. Removed by Employment Equity Amendment Act 2025.No longer required
ASSA ReviewIndependent quality evaluation of test reliability, validity, and fairness for use in the South African context. Voluntary but increasingly expected.Assessment Standards South Africa (ASSA) — independent non-profit
EEA Section 8 (a–c) complianceRemains mandatory. Practitioners and employers share responsibility for ensuring tests are valid, reliable, and free from bias in the SA context.Practitioner and employer shared responsibility

Ethical Obligations for Assessment Practitioners in 2026

Use only classified tests for psychological purposes

Any test that measures a psychological construct must be listed on the HPCSA’s published list of classified psychological tests before you use it in a professional context. Additionally, you must ensure that your own registration category permits you to use that specific test. Using a test outside your scope of practice is both an ethical violation and a legal one under the Health Professions Act (Psytech South Africa, 2025).

Apply the Employment Equity Act requirements in every assessment context

Even with the removal of the certification requirement, practitioners retain the ethical and legal obligation to ensure that any assessment used in employment is valid, reliable, and demonstrably free from bias for the specific population being assessed. Specifically, this means you cannot simply rely on international norms for a South African population. You must be able to justify why the test is appropriate for the specific cultural, linguistic, and contextual group you are assessing (Assessment Standards South Africa, 2025).

Establish a professional relationship before remote or online testing

Sending a test link to a person with whom no professional relationship has been established does not constitute ethical practice. A professional relationship must exist before administering any psychological assessment — this applies to online and remote testing contexts as much as in-person assessment. Where practitioners use online platforms, they must personally take professional responsibility for how the technology is used (Psytech South Africa, 2025).

Maintain confidentiality of test materials and results

Test items, manuals, and scoring keys must not be disclosed to persons who are not appropriately registered to use them. Furthermore, results must be communicated to clients with appropriate context and professional interpretation — releasing raw scores without interpretation is an ethical violation under the HPCSA code of conduct.

The Role of ASSA in the South African Assessment Landscape

Assessment Standards South Africa (ASSA) was formally established in 2022 in direct response to the gap created by the HPCSA’s shift to classification-only responsibility. ASSA is an independent, non-profit organisation that evaluates the reliability, validity, and fairness of psychological and psychometric tests for use in South Africa (Laher et al., 2025).

ASSA is not a regulatory body — its reviews are voluntary and do not replace HPCSA classification or EEA compliance obligations. However, in 2026, selecting tests that have undergone independent ASSA review provides an additional layer of professional defensibility, particularly in employment contexts where EEA compliance may be scrutinised. As a result, practitioners should increasingly factor ASSA review status into their test selection decisions.

Why Assessment Ethics Matters for Your CPD

Ethics in assessment is a core content area for CPD across multiple psychology registration categories — particularly psychometry, industrial psychology, and counselling psychology. Your annual 5 ethics CEUs should include content that directly addresses your specific practice context, and for practitioners involved in assessment, that means keeping current with the legislative changes outlined above.

The Employment Equity Amendment Act changes that came into effect in January 2025 represent exactly the kind of update that should inform your ethics CPD this year. Browse the PsyCampus CPD packages for content relevant to your registration category — or read our overview of HPCSA CPD requirements for 2026 for context on how your ethics obligations fit into the broader compliance picture.

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