WASTE MANAGEMENT

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment gazetted a notice calling for public comments on risk assessment and management plans for the beneficial use of certain waste streams. This is in anticipation of their possible exemption from being classified as waste.

 

TRANSPORT

• The Department of Transport and the South African Civil Aviation Authority gazetted a notice calling for public comments on proposals for amending three sets of regulations and certain technical standards:
  • draft amendments to appeals committee rules and procedures
  • draft amendments to air cargo security regulations
  • draft amendments to regulations on aviation security for non-scheduled commercial aircraft operations, and
  • draft amendment to technical standards for medical certification.

 

• The Department of Transport also issued a Government Gazette notice calling for public comments on Transport Appeal Tribunal draft regulations intended to replace those in force since 2013.

 

INDEPENDENT COMMUNICATIONS AUTHORITY OF SOUTH AFRICA (ICASA)

• ICASA gazetted an amended set of regulations on the governance and functions of its Consumer Advisory Panel, which is tasked with:
  • ‘liaising and engaging with consumers on a quarterly basis to understand … (their) perspectives on issues impacting the electronic communications, broadcasting and postal services sectors’
  • conducting the necessary research
  • ‘providing a consumer perspective through commentary on relevant regulations and regulatory projects when published for public comment’, and
  • preparing quarterly and annual reports to ICASA and its council.

 

CREATIVE SECTOR

• In a written reply to questions from EFF Western Cape delegate to the NCOP, Mbulelo Magwala, Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi explained the challenges associated with improving the ‘exploitative’ and ‘appalling’ working conditions in some creative industries. The Minister blamed the ‘vulnerability’ of South African creatives on:
  • ‘the absence of an employment relationship or the existence of a flimsy one’
  • a state of affairs in which ‘most people’ working in the sector ‘are regarded as freelancers or independent contractors’, and
  • the ‘unique nature and circumstances’ of the film and television industry in particular, making a bargaining council arrangement or sectoral determination unworkable.

Prepared by Pam Saxby