ELECTORAL AMENDMENT BILL

• Parliament now has until 28 February 2023 to complete its work on the Bill, according to a recent media statement, which:
  • refers to an interim deadline extension granted in December 2022 pending the court’s ‘final determination’
  • notes that the interim extension followed Parliament’s ‘urgent application’ three days earlier, but which
  • makes no reference to the original June 2022 deadline handed down in 2020.
• Changes to the Bill recommended by the NCOP were advertised for public comment by 27 January and will now be considered by the National Assembly’s Home Affairs Committee, to which they were sent in November 2022 for concurrence.

 

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• The Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs has published a ten-year national framework for local economic development intended to:
  • close a ‘policy gap in local economic development planning’ by:
    • focusing on ‘the function of cities in the development and advancement of innovative local systems’, according to an accompanying media statement.

 

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has issued a media statement on a recently signed memorandum of understanding between South Africa and India in terms of which:
  • South Africa will:
    • assist India in its efforts to reintroduce cheetah to that country, and
    • fly ‘an initial batch of 12 cheetah’ to India to join eight cheetahs from Namibia, and
  • the two countries will ‘collaborate and exchange best practices in large carnivore conservation’ through technology transfer, management training and policy development.

 

MONEY LAUNDERING

• The Department of International Relations and Co-operation has issued a media statement announcing a commitment by the South African and United States governments to establish a task force intended to advance the efforts of both countries to ‘combat the laundering of money generated from illegal wildlife trade’.

 

WASTE TYRE MANAGEMENT

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has gazetted a notice calling for public comments on draft amendments to the 2017 waste tyre management regulations. This follows the publication of a draft waste tyre management plan in December 2022 for stakeholder input.

 

PENSION FUNDS ACT REGULATIONS

• National Treasury has gazetted a notice repealing Regulation 33 of the Pension Funds Act, 1956, with effect from 20 February 2023.
• Setting out an employer’s pension fund contribution obligations, Regulation 33 will be replaced by Financial Sector Conduct Authority Standard 1 of 2022.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby