BILLS SIGNED INTO LAW

• A speech delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa at a signing ceremony on 24 May 2024 confirmed that the following Bills have been signed into law:
  • the National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill’s ‘B’ version, intended to facilitate the process of making the Investigating Directorate against Corruption a permanent, independent entity within the Office of the National Director of Public Prosecutions, and
  • the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Bill’s ‘B’ version, intended to facilitate the process of proceeding with the institutional arrangements necessary for implementing the 2020 National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.
• At the time of writing the new Acts had yet to be gazetted.

 

LAND TENURE RIGHTS

• A presidential proclamation was gazetted announcing the 1 June 2024 commencement of the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Amendment Act, 2021. This will give effect to a 2018 Constitutional Court ruling on sub-section 2(1) of the principal statute, which was found to be in violation of women’s rights. When the Act came into force in 1991, it was assumed that a man headed any household affected by the legislation and therefore held any deed of grant or right of leasehold to be converted into a right of ownership.

• Regulations on converting a land tenure right into an ownership right were also gazetted, replacing those published on 3 April 2024 and withdrawn three weeks later

 

IMMIGRATION REGULATIONS

• The Department of Home Affairs gazetted revised second amendments to regulations in place since May 2014 under the Immigration Act, 2002. Immediately in force, they replace a version published on 28 March 2024 and withdrawn two weeks later. The revised second amendments affect:
  • corporate, work, visitors’ and ‘temporary sojourn’ visa applications
  • permanent residence applications, and
  • applications to reside in South Africa ‘on other grounds’.

 

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

• The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development called for public comments on draft management control system regulations under the Agricultural Product Standards Act, 1990. The proposed new regulations:
  • focus on the sale and export of primary and processed products of vegetable or animal origin wholly or in part (excluding liquor and alcoholic beverages falling under the Liquor Products Act, 1989), and
  • among other things prescribe:
    • the procedures to be followed before using a management control system in the manufacturing process
    • the management control system registration process
    • procedures to be followed when objecting to a registration application
    • the labelling of products ‘derived from a registered management control system’, and
    • the process of auditing a registered management control system.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby