Doing Business in South Africa 2018 focuses on business regulations and their enforcement across five Doing Business areas. It goes beyond Johannesburg to benchmark eight other South African urban areas across four regulatory areas. It also measures the process of trading across Doing Business in South Africa 2018 borders through four of South Africa’s maritime ports. This report contains data current as of May 1, 2018 and includes comparisons with other economies based on data from Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs. Doing Business measures aspects of regulation that enable or hinder entrepreneurs in starting, operating or expanding a business—and provides recommendations and good practices for improving the business environment.

The Five Doing Business indicator sets covering areas of local jurisdiction or practice including:

1. Dealing with construction permits
   Records the procedures, time and cost required for a small or medium-size domestic business to obtain the approvals needed to build a
   commercial warehouse and connect it to water and sewerage; assesses the quality control and safety mechanisms in the construction permitting system.
2. Getting electricity
   Records the procedures, time and cost required for a business to obtain a permanent commercial electricity connection for a standardized warehouse; assesses the reliability of the electricity supply and the transparency of tariffs.
3. Trading across borders
   Records the time and cost (excluding tariffs) to import and export goods. Three sets of procedures are assessed—documentary compliance, border compliance and domestic transport—within the overall process of exporting and importing a shipment of goods.
4. Registering property
   Records the procedures, time and cost required to transfer a property title from one domestic firm to another so that the buyer can use the property to expand its business, use it as collateral or, if necessary, sell it; assesses the quality of the land administration system; includes a gender dimension to account for any gender discriminatory practices.
5. Enforcing contracts
   Records the time and cost for resolving a commercial dispute through a local first-instance court, which hears arguments on the merits of the case and appoints an expert to provide an opinion on the quality of the goods in dispute; assesses the existence of good practices in the court system.