ONE-STOP BORDER POST BILL

• The Department of Home Affairs gazetted an explanatory summary of the One-Stop Border Post Bill, a draft of which was released in April 2023 for public comment.
• Approved by Cabinet during a meeting on 29 November 2023, according to a media statement issued at the time the Bill ‘seeks to give effect to … relevant international legal instruments relating to trade facilitation, (and the) movement of persons and goods’.
• The explanatory summary also refers to provisions in the Bill for:
  • establishing ‘common control zones in the territory of an adjoining state’, and
  • authorising the application of South African laws and those of an adjoining state in the one-stop border post concerned.

 

WATER AND SANITATION

• In a speech announcing the publication of his department’s latest blue, green and ‘no’ drop reports, Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu said there are ‘limits to which national government support and intervention can address the decline in services’ and that ‘fundamental reform’ is required.
• To that end, a draft Water Services Amendment Bill was developed and released in November 2023 for public comment as a first step towards ensuring ‘more professionally managed, capable, efficient, and financially viable water services institutions’. The draft Bill seeks to:
  • address gaps in existing regulations on ‘safely managed sanitation’
  • improve the quality of potable/drinking water
  • improve ‘the accountability of water services providers’ by way of operating licence requirements
  • make registration mandatory for persons installing and operating water service works, and
  • strengthen water board governance.
• According to a Department of Water and Sanitation media statement on the latest blue, green and ‘no’ drop reports:
  • the blue drop report ‘provides an assessment of drinking water quality’
  • the green drop progress assessment report provides ‘an update on the performance of wastewater management systems at municipal level’, and
  • the ‘no drop report’ focuses on water loss and non-revenue water across municipalities nationwide.

 

RENEWABLE ENERGY

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment gazetted a notice and media statement affecting the developers of renewable energy facilities.
• According to both documents, when applying for an environmental authorisation to develop such a facility within a certain radius of a main electricity distribution or transmission substation, a letter of consent from Eskom is required confirming that ‘the proposed layout of the facility will not unnecessarily obstruct access to the transmission or distribution infrastructure’.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment called for public comments on revised draft regulations among other things intended to domesticate the United Nations 2023 Minamata Convention on Mercury. Informed by input on a draft released in March 2023, the revised regulations focus on:
  • managing the release of mercury into the environment
  • reducing anthropogenic mercury emissions resulting from industrial and manufacturing processes
  • phasing out ‘mercury-added products’
  • phasing down the use of dental amalgam, and
  • regulating mercury storage facilities.

 

AUDITING PROFESSION

• The Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors gazetted a policy document listing factors that ‘may’ affect an auditor’s fitness to practice the profession, as well as those that definitely will. Immediately effective, the policy applies to all registered auditors, as well as those seeking registration or re-registration.

 

LEGAL PRACTICE COUNCIL

• Notices were gazetted amending rules dealing with:
  • misconduct
  • practical vocational training and pupillage
  • study leave for candidate attorneys
  • matters affecting the conversion of an advocate’s enrolment; and the keeping of accounting records
  • interest on trust accounts, and
  • the members of provincial councils.

 

LEGAL AID SOUTH AFRICA

• The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development issued a notice calling for public comments on draft amendments to regulations under the Legal Aid South Africa Act, 2014.

 

RULES BOARD FOR COURTS OF LAW

• A notice was issued calling for public comments on proposals informed by a review of tariffs prescribed in the Magistrates’ Courts Rules.

 

CONSTRUCTION AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT

• The South African Council for the Project and Construction Management Professions gazetted notices calling for public comments on:
  • draft rules for inquiries into allegations of improper conduct, and
  • draft rules on reregistration.
• Both sets of draft rules were gazetted twice:
  • the first time allowed nine days for input, and
  • the second time, they were published just two days before the commentary period was due to expire.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby