RACISM

• The results of a baseline study on levels of racism, anti-foreigner sentiment, homophobia, racial incidents, inter-racial relations and perceptions of national identity have been published. In a speech at the booklet’s launch, Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola said, ‘Without a high degree of social cohesion and unity of purpose, it is difficult to envisage South Africa overcoming the significant obstacles that stand in the way of prosperity and equity’.

 

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY

• In her 2022/23 budget vote speech, Employment and Labour Deputy Minister Boitumelo Moloi drew attention to clauses in the recently passed Employment Equity Amendment Bill intended to reduce the regulatory burden on entities with less than 50 employees. According to the Deputy Minister, they will be ‘exempted from complying with (the) … administrative processes’ of:
  • conducting workplace analyses
  • preparing employment equity plans
  • complying with sector-specific employment equity targets, and
  • submitting employment equity reports.

 

SOUTH AFRICAN SIGN LANGUAGE (SASL)

• A Constitution 18th Amendment Bill is expected to be released soon in draft form for public comment as the next step in recognising SASL as the country’s 12th official language. This was announced in a media statement on last week’s Cabinet meeting.

 

STATE SECURITY

• Minister in the Presidency responsible for state security, Mondli Gungubele’s 2022/23 budget vote speech confirmed that ‘a General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill has been finalised and the roadmap for its submission to Parliament ... presented to the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence’. According to the Minister, the Bill ‘will be submitted to Parliament in September 2022’ and, once operationalised, will provide for the establishment of:
  • ‘a domestic arm of the service’ to focus on counter-intelligence and domestic intelligence
  • a foreign service arm to focus on foreign intelligence gathering, and
  • ‘the re-establishment of the South African National Academy of Intelligence ... to focus on intelligence training as a critical element of skills development and capacity building’.
• The Minister also referred to a national security policy and strategy, both of which are works in progress and on which public comment will eventually be sought.

 

MINING AND THE ENVIRONMENT

• A mine water management policy has been approved ‘for implementation’, according to the media statement on last week’s Cabinet meeting. Developed in line with the National Water Act, 1998, the policy:
  • provides ‘mechanisms’ for protecting and conserving the water used in mining operations
  • ‘balances’ water use imperatives implicit in ‘mine economic activities’ with the overarching objective of ensuring ‘sustainable water usage’
  • ‘clarifies’ the roles and responsibilities of each sphere of government in dealing with ‘mine water issues’, and
  • is expected to ‘resolve the challenges of instituting sanctions on polluters’ by making it easier to ‘invoke the polluter pays principle’.

 

TRANSPORT

• The revised White Paper on National Transport has been gazetted. Its overarching objectives are to:
  • meet ‘basic accessibility needs’
  • grow the economy
  • ‘develop and protect human resources’, involving stakeholders in key transport-related decision making
  • ‘enable customers requiring transport for people or goods to access the transport system in ways that best meet their chosen criteria’
  • ‘improve the safety, security, reliability, quality and speed of transporting goods and people’
  • ‘improve South Africa’s competitiveness and that of its transport infrastructure and operations through greater effectiveness and efficiency, to better meet the needs of different customer groups, both locally and globally’
  • invest in infrastructure/transport systems in ways that satisfy social, economic and strategic investment criteria, and to
  • achieve this in a manner that is economically and environmentally sustainable, minimising negative side effects.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby