CITIZENSHIP, IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE PROTECTION

• The Department of Home Affairs gazetted a White Paper as the next step in a ‘complete overhaul’ of South Africa’s ‘migration system’. Its purpose is to provide a policy framework for addressing shortcomings in the prevailing system making implementation ‘cumbersome and difficult’. According to a media statement on the White Paper, among other things it:
  • recommends a review of South Africa’s accession to the 1951 UN Refugees Convention and 1967 Protocol on the Status of Refugees, and
  • points to various likely interventions, including:
    • abolishing the relative’s visa, corporate visa and intra-company visa
    • introducing limited-duration permanent residence visas linked to minimum investment
    • introducing e-visas for tourists and remote work visas, and
    • replacing the South African Citizenship Act, 1995, and the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1992, with a single piece of legislation dealing with citizenship, immigration and refugee protection.

 

HIGH DEMAND OCCUPATIONS

• The Department of Higher Education and Training gazetted the latest list, background information to which notes, among other things, that:
  • South Africa has ‘very high’ levels of education-job mismatch, with:
    • 51.7% of workers employed in an occupation for which they do not have the correct education level
    • 30.3% of workers employed in an occupation that does not match the field of study of their highest educational attainment
    • approximately 23% of workers are overqualified for their jobs, and
    • 28.7% underqualified for the work they are doing.
• The list was prepared with the intention of providing ‘support’ to planning processes in the post-school education and training system by assisting with:
  • identifying areas requiring the development of new qualifications that respond to ‘emerging occupations and skills needs’
  • ‘resource allocation processes’, and
  • ‘career guidance for learners and work-seekers’.

 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)

• The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies released a discussion document on artificial intelligence (AI) planning, which was the focus of a national AI government summit held on 5 April 2024. According to the website page on which the document was posted, it was developed as part of an ongoing ‘pre-policy’ stakeholder consultation process. No call has been made for broader public comment.

• The document explores:
  • Global Concerns about AI
  • the components of AI (including machine learning, neural networks and deep learning)
  • the impact of applied and generative AI, and
  • ethical considerations.

 

CHICKEN PORTION IMPORTS

• The International Trade Administration Commission gazetted a final determination following its sunset review investigation into the likely impact of lifting anti-dumping duties on frozen bone-in chicken portions originating in or imported from the United States. Among other things, the determination notes that Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel has endorsed the Commission’s recommendation that existing anti-dumping duties should remain in force.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment called for public comments on a draft ‘norm’ setting out the procedures to be followed and requirements met when applying for exclusion from environmental authorisation for developing or expanding electricity transmission and distribution substations in areas of low-to-medium environmental sensitivity. The process envisaged entails, among other things:
  • compliance with mitigation measures in a ‘pre-negotiated corridor’
  • a site sensitivity verification inspection
  • consultations with all affected parties, and
  • pre-registration and registration procedures (including those to be followed by the authorities concerned, with timeframes).

 

RAIL TRANSPORT REFORM

• The Department of Transport gazetted a notice extending the deadline for public comments on a draft network statement intended to provide ‘all train operating companies with … (the) unified source of information flow required for a functional rail access system’. Among other things, the proposed network statement:
  • covers ‘rules, time limits, timelines, procedures, services, charging principles, and terms and conditions governing the use of the railway infrastructure by train operating companies’
  • includes information on operational corridors making up the network, and
  • deals with infrastructure manager-train operating company service level agreements.

 

AUTOMOTIVE AFTERMARKET INDUSTRY

• The Competition Commission issued a media statement extending the deadline for public comments on draft amendments to guidelines issued in 2021 with the intention of promoting competition in the local automotive aftermarket industry. These somewhat technical draft amendments:
  • seek to acknowledge and address issues with implications for original equipment manufacturers and insurers (including ‘low volume and insufficient work’, possibly affecting their capacity to ‘onboard motor body repairers’)
  • take account of ‘various factors’ when onboarding motor body repairers on a case-by-case basis, and
  • attempt to clarify provisions for ‘the unbundled sale of motor vehicles with value added products’, which apply to ‘new, demo and/or second-hand vehicles at the point of sale’.

 

COURT RULES

• The Rules Board for Courts of Law issued a notice calling for public comments on amendments to:
  • Magistrates Courts Rule 72 (notice agreeing to or opposing mediation), and
  • Uniform Rule 41A(2) (mediation as a dispute resolution mechanism).
• Once finalised, the amended, harmonised rules will provide that ‘in urgent applications’, the court or a judge may dispense with standard procedures in terms of which notices are served on an applicant/plaintiff and defendant/respondent requiring them to agree to or oppose referral of the dispute to mediation.

 

JUDICIAL MATTERS AMENDMENT ACT

• The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development published a fact sheet unpacking the recently promulgated Judicial Matters Amendment Act, 2023. This is noting that:
  • most sections of the Act came into effect on 3 April 2024, when it was gazetted, and that
  • only the new Act’s section 9 has yet to come into force (dealing with the Minister’s powers to make regulations, which are in the process of being developed).
• Among other things, the fact sheet draws attention to:
  • four Constitutional Court judgments to which the new Act responds
  • ‘important amendments’ to the Administration of Estates Act, 1965, and
  • provisions allowing the expungement of criminal records where Covid-19 State of Disaster regulations were violated and an admission of guilt fine was paid.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby