COVID-19

• A Government Gazette notice officially returning South Africa to lockdown level three was published on 15 June.
• Adjusted regulations gazetted the same day formalised restrictions announced in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to the nation on 15 June, imposing:
  • longer curfew hours (22:00 to 04:00 daily)
  • an earlier closing time for listed facilities and venues (21:00 daily)
  • caps of 50 and 100 people respectively on indoor and outdoor gatherings where venues can accommodate these numbers without compromising social distancing requirements
  • a cap of 50% capacity at venues too small to do so
  • a cap of 50 attendees at funerals and cremations
  • restrictions on the sale of liquor at retail outlets for off-site consumption (10:00 to 18:00 from Monday to Thursday, excluding public holidays)
  • an earlier closing time for premises licensed to sell alcohol for on-site consumption (21:00 daily), and confirming
  • the ongoing prohibition of alcohol consumption in any other public space, and
  • the ongoing prohibition of after-funeral/cremation and similar gatherings.

 

• The regulations were amended on 17 June and now:
  • require banks and non-bank financial institutions operating ATMs to:
    • make hand sanitisers available at their machines, and
    • take ‘reasonable steps’ to ensure that social distancing protocols are observed by anyone queuing to use them, and
  • exclude children under the age of six from being required to wear a mask before entering a public place.

 

• On 19 June, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced the immediate commencement of a vaccination programme for educators, support staff and administrators at public schools ‘irrespective of their age’.

 

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

• The 2013 White Paper on Families has been revised.

 

COMMUNICATIONS

• Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Stell Ndabeni-Abrahams has clarified aspects of her department’s draft policy for data and cloud computing.

 

ECONOMY

• The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition has published its recently signed master plan for the steel sector.

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has confirmed that squid has been added to the basket of species available to South Africa’s small-scale fishers, who have been allocated 15% of the ‘total allowable’ catch.

 

ENVIRONMENT

• The 2015 financial provisioning regulations for mines have been https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202106/44698gon495.pdf amended.

• The environmental impact assessment regulations have been https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202106/44701gon517.pdf amended.

• An estuarine management https://legalbrief.co.za/media/filestore/2021/06/44724_18-06_NationalGovernment-1_estuarine_management.pdf protocol has been gazetted.

• The deadline has been https://www.gov.za/speeches/water-and-sanitation-extends-time-public-comment-unconventional-gas-regulations-14-jun-2021 extended for public comment on https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202105/44545gon406.pdf proposals for regulating water use in onshore hydraulic fracturing and/or underground gasification exploration and production activities.

 

PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION ACT

• The Information Regulator has https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202106/44690gon492.pdf called for public comment on a https://www.justice.gov.za/inforeg/docs/InfoRegSA-Notice-BASA-COC-20210614.pdf draft code of conduct for Banking Association South Africa members.

• The commencement of section 58(2) has been postponed. This sub-section requires the regulator to investigate a situation requiring prior authorisation in terms of sub-section 58(1) or to notify the responsible party that no such investigation is required.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby