CITIZENSHIP REGULATIONS

• The Department of Home Affairs has withdrawn and replaced amendments to the naturalisation application regulations gazetted on 12 June 2023. The new amendments came into effect on 7 July 2023 and apply expressly to naturalisation applicants:
  • born in South Africa ‘between 6 October 1995 and the date of having attained the age of 18 years’,
  • who have lived in South Africa and ‘have no citizenship, residency or connection in any manner whatsoever … (with) any other country’.

ENERGY CRISIS

• The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has gazetted a notice in isiZulu removing the ‘threshold for generation facilities’ gazetted in August 2021 . This is implied by the two-line summary featured in a contents list on the second page of National Government Gazette 48923.

 

COMPANIES AMENDMENT BILL

• Cabinet has approved the Companies Amendment Bill for tabling in Parliament. According to a media statement on the Cabinet meeting at which the Bill was considered, it seeks to:
  • ‘reduce the regulatory and administrative burdens to business owners’, thus ‘enhanc(ing) South Africa’s attractiveness to potential investors’
  • close certain ‘gaps’ in the Act with a view to curbing money laundering
  • strengthen disclosure requirements in the Act, and
  • ‘enhance … shareholder powers in a company’ by ‘clarify(ing) (the) responsibilities … (of) directors and senior management on the one hand, and shareholders on the other’.
• While ‘most’ of the amendments proposed are apparently ‘technical in nature’ and focus on ‘streamlining and clarifying administrative issues’, the statement alludes to provisions intended to address ‘public concerns’ about ‘excessive remuneration … at the highest levels of a company’.

POPIA

• The Information Regulator has gazetted a notice calling for public comments on Direct Marketing Association of Southern Africa proposals for a code of conduct under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), 2013.
• Among other things, it is envisaged that:
  • a complaints adjudication panel of experts would be appointed
  • there would be ‘safeguards’ underpinning dataset linkage for direct marketing purposes, and
  • the association would develop and implement a rights and redress awareness programme for data subjects.

TRANSPORT

• The Department of Transport has gazetted a five-year national strategic framework to guide integrated land transport planning and delivery across all three spheres of government. The framework was released in draft form in March 2023 for public comment. Among other things, it covers:
  • urban transport and ‘smart mobility’
  • rural, non-motorised, learner, freight and cross-border transport
  • ‘universal accessibility’
  • transport infrastructure
  • transport safety and security, and
  • institutional management.

• The department has also issued a second Government Gazette notice calling for public comments on proposed amendments to tourism transport operator regulations under the National Land Transport Act, 2009. The first call for comments was published in April 2023. Once finalised and in force, the amended regulations will require:
  • every prospective tourist transport services operator to simultaneously apply for accreditation and an operating license, and
  • every existing unaccredited operator to ‘apply for accreditation without delay, to avoid being barred’ from providing tourist transport services when the Act’s sub-section 81(1) comes into effect – making accreditation mandatory.

FUNERAL INDUSTRY REGULATION

• The South African Law Reform Commission has called for public comments on a discussion document published as the second step in its review of legislation regulating the funeral industry. The paper reflects some input received in response to an issue paper released in October 2020 for general information and comment. According to an accompanying media statement, among other things the discussion document proposes:
  • ‘the establishment of an ombud scheme, and
  • the adoption of a code of conduct for funeral service practitioners’.

AIR QUALITY CONTROL

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has gazetted a notice granting the National Environmental Consultative & Advisory Forum another year to:
  • identify practical options for addressing non-compliance with minimum emissions standards and related issues, and
  • determine the criteria to be met when considering applications for provisional atmospheric emissions licences, taking account of:
    • international commitments
    • human health and wellbeing
    • the energy crisis, and
    • the economic climate.

MARINE LIVING RESOURCES

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment has called for public comments on draft amendments to the 2008 regulations on wild abalone protection areas. It is proposed that the existing no-dive area should be significantly extended.

Prepared by Pam Saxby