TEMPORARY EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE RELIEF SCHEME (TERS)

• The Department of Employment and Labour has issued a media statement on Minister Thulas Nxesi’s 2023/4 budget vote speech confirming that the TERS ‘will continue to provide support to distressed companies … seek(ing) to retain their employees’.
• According to the statement, the scheme is now administered through the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.

 

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY

• The Department of Employment and Labour has gazetted draft regulations that, once in force, will operationalise the Employment Equity Amendment Act, 2022.
•  Among other things, the Amendment Act empowers the Minister to prescribe sector-specific employment equity targets per population group and gender – nationally and regionally.

 

NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE

• The Department of Employment and Labour has published its latest report on medium-term targets for the national minimum wage.
• Informed by input received in response to a call in December 2022 for written submissions, the report confirms that:
  • the National Minimum Wage Commission’s medium-term target is that ‘the value of the minimum wage does not decline relative to the median wage’, and that
  • to achieve this, ‘the Commission will increase the value of the minimum wage gradually over time in real terms … relative to the Consumer Price Index’.

 

HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

• In her budget vote speech for 2023/4, Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi announced that:
  • all subsidised houses still under construction on 1 April 2023 and built after that date will be provided with solar panels and rainwater harvesting devices, ‘especially in rural communities’
  • houses for people still under construction on 1 April 2023 and built after that date specifically for people with disabilities will be fitted with burglar bars, and that
  • subsidies have been increased by 29% for the following programmes:
    • ‘breaking new ground’
    • first home finance
    • ‘disabled housing’
    • military veterans housing, and
    • social housing.

 

NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS

• The Department of Social Development has gazetted regulations operationalising amendments to the Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) Act, 1993, prescribed in the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act, 2022.
• In force since 8 May 2023, among other things the new regulations:
  • require the department’s directorate to establish and maintain a register of ‘persons disqualified from serving as office-bearers in terms of an order of a court pursuant to the Act or any other law’, and
  • have implications for fiscal sponsorship (an arrangement between a registered and unregistered NPO to ‘facilitate fundraising and maintain controls over … expenditure’.

 

TRUST PROPERTY

• The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has issued a media statement reminding members of the public of their obligations under amendments to the Trust Property Control Act and its regulations.
• In force since 1 April 2023, the amended legislation is now aligned to relevant requirements in the General Laws (Anti Money-Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act, 2022.
• According to the media statement, the amended legislation:
  • is expected to improve the ‘transparency’ of South Africa’s beneficial ownership regulatory framework by making certain reporting requirements mandatory, and
  • makes non-compliance an offence that, upon conviction, may incur:
    • a fine of up to R10m
    • imprisonment for a period of up to five years
    • or both.

 

ESKOM DEBT RELIEF

• National Treasury has published an explanatory note on the Eskom Debt Relief Bill, which is now waiting to be passed by the National Assembly and sent to the NCOP for concurrence.
• Among other things, the document answers frequently asked questions about the loan proposed in the Bill and Eskom’s obligations in that regard.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby