ESKOM

• National Treasury has issued a media statement confirming that Eskom will not be granted a partial exemption from disclosing irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure and material losses from criminal conduct in its annual financial statements.
• The announcement followed a consultation process begun in April 2023, when Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana gazetted a notice granting the power utility a partial exemption that was then withdrawn a few days later.

 

WATER AND SANITATION

• The Department of Water and Sanitation has issued a media statement on its latest blue drop, green drop and no-drop water reports, which are part of a support and regulatory mechanism intended to identify shortcomings in water and sanitation services and assist municipalities in their efforts to address them. Since last year’s reports were published:
  • only a few municipal wastewater systems in a ‘critical condition’ at the time have implemented the necessary corrective action plans
  • there has been a general deterioration in water quality, and
  • nearly half the volume of drinking water supplied by municipalities is ‘non-revenue, comprising water losses and unbilled consumption.
• The department has also issued a statement explaining the rationale behind proposed amendments to the regulations on water use licence application procedural requirements. Gazetted in May for public comment, the amendments:
  • seek to ‘effect reforms in relation to equitable allocation of water use
  • respond to a review of ‘timeframes and fees linked to licence application processes’, and
  • seek to address regulatory uncertainties in key aspects of water use licensing, including:
    • public participation, and
    • ‘the provision of financial security for post-licence rehabilitation’.

 

INDEPENDENT POLICE INVESTIGATIVE DIRECTORATE AMENDMENT BILL

• Following Cabinet’s approval of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate Amendment Bill for tabling in Parliament, an explanatory summary its contents has been published.
• According to a media statement on the Cabinet meeting at which the Bill was approved, once operationalised it is expected to ‘entrench’ the IPID’s institutional and operational independence, ‘giving effect to the McBride judgement’ (A Constitutional Court ruling handed down in September 2016).

 

POSTAL SERVICES REGULATIONS

• The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa has gazetted a notice extending the deadline for public comment on a discussion document released in March 2023.

 

HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDES

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has gazetted a notice  postponing the commencement of February 2023 regulations prescribing the prior informed consent procedures to be followed when trading internationally in hazardous chemicals and pesticides. Their purpose is to domesticate the requirements of the 1998 Rotterdam Convention.

 

BIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has called for public comments on a draft biodiversity management plan for sharks. Once finalised, it will replace one operationalised in 2015, which was South Africa’s ‘first attempt at a comprehensive plan for shark conservation’.

Prepared by Pam Saxby