ELECTRICITY REGULATION AMENDMENT ACT

 

• The Presidency issued a media statement announcing that the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill’s ‘B’ version has been signed into law. At the time of writing, the new Act had not yet been gazetted. However, once in force, among other things it will:
  • establish the Transmission System Operator SOC Ltd as an independent company and ‘custodian of the national grid’
  • enable the National Transmission Company of South Africa to serve as an ‘interim’ transmission system operator
  • provide for ‘an open market platform’ that facilitates the ‘competitive, wholesale or retail buying and selling of electricity’
  • ‘impose severe penalties for damage to and (the) sabotage of infrastructure’, and
  • facilitate the ‘more rapid uptake of renewable energy sources’.

 

PUBLIC PROCUREMENT ACT

 

• National Treasury issued a media statement confirming that the Public Procurement Act is not yet in effect and that – pending its phased commencement – the ‘current procurement framework’ will remain in place.
• The statement also:
  • drew attention to the new Act’s section 69, which enables the President to determine and proclaim different dates for operationalising the Act’s other provisions and applying them to ‘different categories of procuring institutions such as national and provincial departments, national and provincial public entities and municipalities and municipal entities’, and
  • noted that pre-commencement regulations will need to be drafted, released for public comment and scrutinised by Parliament before being gazetted for implementation in anticipation of giving practical effect to each of the Act’s provisions.

 

COMMUNICATIONS

 

• The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa gazetted a draft licensing framework for satellite services, calling for public comments. This is the first step in an inquiry among other things intended to determine the procedures to be followed when:
  • authorising various types of terminal
  • service providers communicate with in-motion space and ground earth stations, and when
  • international satellite operators register to provide direct or indirect services to local consumers.
• Noting the ‘increasing amount of bandwidth used by satellite systems operating in higher frequency bands’, the inquiry will also consider whether it is necessary to ‘review spectrum fees’.

 

LEGAL PRACTICE COUNCIL

 

• The Legal Practice Council gazetted notices:
  • calling for public comments on a draft structured course work programme for the practical vocational training of candidate attorneys
  • calling for public comments on draft amendments to its rule on the procedures to the followed when investigating allegations of misconduct, and
  • amending rules affecting:
    • ‘the minimum remuneration, allowance, or stipend for candidate legal practitioners undergoing practical vocational training under … contract’, and
    • the annual levy payable by senior and junior counsel of 10 years standing.

 

COURTS OF LAW

 

• The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development gazetted amendments to rules affecting the conduct of proceedings in:
  • the Supreme Court of Appeal
  • provincial and local divisions of the High Court, and
  • the Magistrates’ Courts.
• Rules affecting Small Claims Court matters have also been amended.
• The amendments are scheduled to come into force on 20 September 2024.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby