LOADSHEDDING: HOSPITAL EXEMPTIONS

• The Department of Health has issued a media statement on progress made in mitigating the impact of load shedding on essential healthcare services. To date:
  • 212 ‘priority hospitals’ have been identified across the country ‘to be considered for possible exclusion from loadshedding on a phased approach’ (67% are supplied directly by municipalities)
  • 72 have been granted exemptions, and
  • a ‘preliminary network analysis’ has identified ‘28 hospitals in various provinces’ that could be excluded from loadshedding ‘by building new infrastructure at the estimated cost of R100 million’.

 

NATIONAL HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM STANDARDS

• The Department of Health has gazetted digital information system standards:
  • applicable to all private and public sector institutions involved in healthcare service delivery at every level, and
  • intended to facilitate efficient information sharing.

 

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY

• The Commission for Employment Equity has issued a media statement on provisions in the Employment Equity Amendment Bill intended to curb ‘malicious compliance’ with the Act. Passed by Parliament in May and now waiting to be signed into law and operationalised, among other things the Bill empowers the Minister to prescribe sector-specific targets in the context of criteria to be met by prospective bidders for state contracts.

 

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

• The Department of Employment and Labour has called for public comments on two sets of draft replacement regulations dealing with workplace exposure to:
  • physical agents, and
  • noise found to induce hearing loss.

 

CRYPTO ASSETS

• The Financial Sector Conduct Authority has:
  • gazetted a notice declaring that crypto assets now fall under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002, as financial products
  • published:
    • its policy on crypto assets, and
    • a summary of responses received to the 2020 draft declaration, and
  • called for public comments on proposals for exempting crypto asset financial service providers and their representatives from meeting certain obligations under the Act (input should be submitted using the template provided).

 

LAND BANK

• National Treasury has published Finance Deputy Minister David Masondo’s speaking notes:
  • on the rationale underpinning provisions in the Financial Matters Amendment Bill seeking to amend section 45 of the Land and Agricultural Development Bank Act (Land Bank), 2002 (judicial management), and
  • unpacked during a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance, when members:
    • were briefed on interventions intended to address challenges being experienced by the Land Bank, and
    • discussed provisions in the Bill expected to avoid an unorderly wind down or any related litigation by limiting the ability of a third-party lender to place the bank in liquidation.

 

NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN

• The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure has gazetted a draft second phase of the plan. Focusing on ‘distributed infrastructure’, it deals with municipal infrastructure related to:
  • human settlements
  • education and health
  • electricity, water and sanitation services
  • solid waste management
  • roads
  • passenger transport, and
  • accessing information technology services.
• The draft first phase national infrastructure plan was released in March for public comment. Focusing on the bulk infrastructure to which municipal infrastructure is linked, it deals with:
  • freight transport
  • energy and water infrastructure, and
  • the foundational services necessary for information technology services to function effectively.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby