Third-Party Risk Management in South Africa
Third-party risk management is the ongoing program a business uses to identify, assess, and monitor the risk introduced by its vendors and suppliers-not a single checklist, but a continuous process. ERPSM helps South African businesses build and run this program, using evidence-based vendor risk assessments as its foundation.
What is third-party risk management?
Third-party risk management (TPRM) is the broader discipline of managing risk across your entire vendor ecosystem over time-including onboarding assessments, ongoing monitoring, incident response involving vendors, and contract-level risk controls. A single vendor risk assessment is one component within this larger program.
Why do businesses need a third-party risk management program, not just one-off assessments?
A one-time questionnaire captures a vendor’s risk profile at a single moment. Vendor risk changes-a certification can lapse, a breach can occur, ownership can change-and a program-level approach catches these changes instead of relying on a snapshot that goes stale.
What does ERPSM’s third-party risk management program include?
- Vendor inventory and tiering — categorizing vendors by the risk and data access they represent
- Initial and periodic assessments — using evidence-based evaluation mapped to SIG Lite, CAIQ, SOC 2, ISO 27001, POPIA, and NDPA
- Continuous monitoring — tracking changes in a vendor’s risk posture between formal assessments
- Incident coordination — a defined process for when a vendor experiences a security incident
- Governance and reporting — board- and audit-ready reporting on third-party risk exposure
- POPIA alignment — ensuring vendor oversight meets South Africa’s data protection requirements (see our POPIA compliance consulting page)
How is third-party risk management different from vendor risk assessment?
| Vendor risk assessment | Third-party risk management | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | A single evaluation of one vendor | An ongoing program across your full vendor base |
| Timing | Point-in-time | Continuous |
| Output | A risk score for one vendor | A governed program with reporting and monitoring |
Who is responsible for third-party risk management?
Typically a shared responsibility between procurement (who onboard and manage vendor relationships), compliance/legal (who ensure regulatory alignment), and IT/security (who assess technical risk)-which is why a program needs clear ownership rather than sitting entirely with one department.
Frequently asked questions
How often should vendor risk be reassessed? This depends on the vendor’s risk tier-high-risk vendors handling sensitive data typically warrant annual or more frequent reassessment, while low-risk vendors may need less frequent review.
Does third-party risk management apply to all vendors, or just IT vendors? It applies to any vendor with access to your data, systems, or premises — which in practice extends well beyond IT vendors to include payroll providers, cloud services, and outsourced business functions.
How does third-party risk management support POPIA compliance? POPIA requires reasonable assurance that third parties processing personal information on your behalf meet appropriate standards — an ongoing program provides the documented, auditable evidence of that assurance over time, rather than a single assessment that becomes outdated.