Expanding our Accredited Network

Following extensive preparation throughout 2025, the Polokwane branch has completed its accreditation audit and is now awaiting formal confirmation for its ISO 17205 accreditation.

Once approved, this will become Roadlab’s first accredited facility in Limpopo — a significant step in improving access to accreditation-assured testing for mining operations, border infrastructure, and major civil works across the country’s northern regions. 

Until now, Roadlab’s most northerly accredited facility was located in Gauteng. The Polokwane
accreditation changes that reality. It brings verified testing capability closer to many of our sites and
affirms that the same rigorous standards define Roadlab’s accredited network nationwide.

Preparing for the Next Standard

Accreditation at Roadlab is not treated as a compliance exercise, but as an ongoing discipline. Group Quality Manager Janco Potgieter is currently in Tanzania supporting preparations for a PJLA accreditation audit, reinforcing Roadlab’s approach to quality beyond South Africa’s borders. 

Our Bloemfontein laboratory will undergo reaccreditation in February, followed by Bellville in April. These reviews are approached proactively — using internal audits, method reviews, and corrective actions to strengthen systems well ahead of formal assessment.

Reaccreditation provides an opportunity to reassess processes, verify consistency across teams, and ensure that documented systems reflect how work is actually done in the laboratory and on site. It is a deliberate decision to hold established branches to the same scrutiny as new facilities — and to improve them as expectations evolve.

Building Capability Through Colloboration

In February, the women of Roadlab’s Quality team will attend the Women in Laboratories Africa Conference at the University of Johannesburg at the end of the month — a focused, working conference built around how laboratories across Africa are managed, improved, and future-proofed.

This is event is about exposure to how other accredited laboratories approach risk, technology adoption, skills development, and day-to-day quality decision-making — from technical execution to administrative control. 

The programme is centred on practical knowledge exchange: round-table discussions, skills training, peer problem-solving, and direct engagement with laboratory professionals responsible for maintaining standards under real operational pressure.

For Roadlab, this matters because trust is maintained by staying current, curious, and connected. Our quality systems are not static — they evolve through learning, shared experience, and informed judgement. 

Engaging with peers, new technologies, and emerging best practices strengthens our ability to safeguard results, support our teams, and maintain credibility across every laboratory we operate.

You will find us at the forefront of quality assurance. Why?

Every presentation, every audit, and every new laboratory we establish has a single purpose — to strengthen confidence in  results.

By embedding testing at the source, refining analytical methods, and continuously improving how our systems perform, Roadlab is advancing the standards that define quality assurance in our world.

Because our standards are the future of testing.