SOUTH AFRICAN LAW REFORM COMMISSION

• The deadline for public comment on a paper exploring alternative dispute resolution in family matters has been extended. According to the media statement announcing this, Covid-19 disaster management measures made it difficult to hold the series of workshops envisaged as part of the public consultation process.

 

INDEPENDENT COMMUNICATIONS AUTHORITY OF SOUTH AFRICA

• The deadline for public comment on draft amendments to the end-user and subscriber service charter regulations has been extended. According to an explanatory memorandum on the changes envisaged, their purpose is to:
  • introduce new regulations on voice, SMS and data services, and
  • respond to concerns expressed by consumers about:
    • prevailing data expiry rules
    • high out-of-bundle rates and rules, and
    • out-of-bundle voice and SMS rules.

 

PUBLIC PROTECTOR CONSTITUTION SECTION 194 INQUIRY

• Parliament has issued a media statement and notice calling for evidence from interested and affected parties.

 

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• The Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs has called for public comments on draft amendments to the municipal planning and performance management regulations. Once in force, they will affect:
  • the preparation of:
    • integrated development plans
    • related:
      • disaster management plans
      • spatial development frameworks
      • financial plans
    • associated community participation obligations, and
  • the process of reviewing existing integrated development plans.

 

LAND REFORM

• In his 2022/23 budget vote speech, Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Deputy Minister Mcebisi Skwatsha referred to a Land Redistribution Bill he expects to be ready for Cabinet approval ‘towards the end of the current financial year’ – presumably in draft form for public comment.

 

GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

• According to Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola’s 2022/23 budget vote speech, amendments to the national register for sex offenders regulations:
  • are expected to be published ‘shortly’, and
  • will be in line with the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, 2021, which ‘requires the particulars of all convicted sex offenders to be entered in the ... register, irrespective of the age and the mental status of the victim’.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL

• Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy’s 2022/23 budget vote speech included undertakings that:
  • before the end of this year, regulations on implementing and enforcing priority area air quality management plans will be published, and that
  • a White Paper on the conservation and sustainable use of South Africa’s biodiversity ‘will be considered by Cabinet during June … whereafter it will be published for public comment’.

 

MINING

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has issued a Government Gazette notice and media statement extending the deadline by which certain mining and exploration rights/permit holders are expected to have complied with existing financial provisioning regulations, noting that:
  • the extension applies only the holders of rights/permits for which applications were made before 20 November 2015, and that
  • amendments to the regulations released last year in draft form for comment ‘are still being finalised’.

 

BROADCASTING SERVICES

• Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni’s 2022/23 budget vote speech referred to two upcoming Bills:
  • a draft South African Broadcasting Corporation SOC Ltd Bill, which is being prepared with the intention of:
    • improving governance, and
    • making the SABC ‘commercially competitive’ while ‘protecting its role as a national broadcaster’, and
  • an Audio and Audio-Visual Content Services Bill and policy, which are being developed ‘to protect the competitiveness and growth of the South African broadcasting and creative industry’.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby