IMMIGRATION REGULATIONS

• The Department of Home Affairs gazetted a notice withdrawing amendments to the immigration regulations published on 28 March 2024. According to the notice, a revised version will be gazetted ‘in due course’.

 

COMMUNICATIONS

• The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa gazetted a notice extending the deadline for public comments on draft amendments to the end-user and subscriber service charter regulations. Published on 29 February 2024, the proposed amendments:
  • seek to consolidate depletion notification provisions for voice, SMS, data and over-the-top media services, and
  • once in force will repeal Regulation 8B (out-of-bundle billing practices).

 

ESKOM DEBT

• The Eskom Debt Relief Amendment Act was gazetted on 8 April 2024, when it came into force. The Act:
  • requires Eskom to pay interest on amounts advanced as a loan in terms of the Eskom Debt Relief Act, 2023, and
  • empowers the Minister of Finance to reduce any amount loaned to Eskom in the event of non-compliance with conditions attached to previous loans under the principal statute.

 

MONEY LAUNDERING CONTROL

• National Treasury gazetted a notice and media statement calling for public comments on draft amendments to provisions in the money laundering and terrorist financing control regulations dealing with the movement of cash or bearer negotiable instruments into or out of South Africa. According to an explanatory memorandum issued with the draft regulations, ‘examples of bearer negotiable instruments include bills of exchange, letters of credit, money orders, postal orders, and promissory notes.’ Among other things, the draft regulatory amendments prescribe:
  • the threshold amount to trigger reporting obligations under section 30 of the Financial Intelligence Act, 2001, and
  • the information to be included in a report on the conveyance of cash or bearer negotiable instruments.

 

NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

• Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, gazetted a notice announcing the commencement of unpublished regulations for national intelligence co-ordination under the National Strategic Intelligence Act, 1994. In terms of sub-section 6(4) of the Act, as amended, the regulations may not be made public. However, according to the notice the new regulations deal with:
  • ‘the production and dissemination of strategic intelligence for use and consideration by Cabinet and the executive’
  • ‘the manner and form in which departmental intelligence must be supplied to state departments’
  • ‘the manner and form in which the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee (NICOC) may be tasked’
  • ‘the provision of staff required for … (its) management and administration’
  • ‘the delineation of the management, composition, functions and responsibilities of the Office of the Co-ordinator and NICOC’, and
  • ‘the establishment and functioning of a National Centre for Intelligence Co-ordination, as well as (a) related national early warning structure within … (it)’.

 

BROAD-BASED BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

• The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture gazetted a notice calling for public comments on a draft code of practice for broad-based black economic empowerment in the events, technical and production services industry. Unfortunately, at the time of writing the draft code had still not been published on the department’s website. However, according to the notice:
  • the proposed new code was developed following stakeholder consultations begun three years ago, and
  • focuses on ownership, management control, skills development, enterprise development and socio-economic development.

 

LAND COURT

• The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development gazetted a notice calling for public comments on draft regulations under the recently promulgated Land Court Act, 2023. Among other things, they:
  • propose that the criteria for determining the number of judges appointed to the Court – subject to any necessary contextual changes – should be the same as those gazetted in January 2016, dealing with the ‘judicial establishment of the Supreme Court of Appeal and divisions of the High Court’
  • include a form of oath or affirmation to be signed by anyone appointed as a judge of the Court who is not a High Court judge
  • provide for the appointment of assessors
  • provide for the remuneration and allowances to which a mediator ‘not in full time service of the state’ should be entitled
  • provide for the appointment of officers of the Court and their functions, and
  • propose that legal assistance should be made available in accordance with relevant sections of the Legal Aid of South Africa Act’s July 2017 regulations – subject to any necessary contextual changes.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby