SOUTH AFRICAN SIGN LANGUAGE

 

• The Constitution 18th Amendment Act was gazetted but is not yet in force. In a speech during the 19 July 2023 ceremony at which President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Bill into law, he said:
  • ‘official recognition is just the beginning’, among other things because
    • the Pan South African Language Board still needs to ‘collapse’ the country’s ‘various geographical dialects’ into one standard version of South African Sign Language
    • ‘policies with fully resourced implementation plans’ still need to be developed for the ‘constitutional ideal of multilingualism’ to become reality, and
    • the shortage of suitably qualified teachers and trained interpreters needs to be addressed.

 

CABLE THEFT AND SCRAP METAL EXPORT CONTROL

 

• The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition gazetted a notice calling for public comments on draft trade policy directives affecting:
  • the manufacture and export of semi-finished copper products, and
  • ferrous scrap rails.
• It is proposed that:
  • copper used in producing semi-finished products for export should come only from three specific sources, and that
  • the export of used or second-hand rails should be prohibited until 15 December 2023, by which time an unforeseen loophole in the measures already in place is expected to have been closed by amendments to the export control regulations.

 

CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

 

• The Civilian Secretariat for Police Services called for public comments on draft regulations under the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, 2019, with the intention of replacing interim arrangements in force since 5 May 2023. This is noting that:
  • the interim regulations focus on establishing the Critical Infrastructure Council, along with its functions and related procedures, and that
  • in addition to this, the draft replacement regulations cover:
    • other institutional arrangements
    • classifying and declaring infrastructure as critical
    • categorising critical infrastructure
    • security policy development and planning
    • inspections, and
    • security personnel.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS

 

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment called for public comment on:
  • a draft protocol on the specialist assessment and minimum report content requirements to be met when determining the impact of onshore wind energy generation facilities on Cape Vultures
  • draft amendments to the protocols followed when assessing and reporting on the impact of certain activities on plant and animal species, and
  • a proposal affecting the exclusion of renewable energy facilities from environmental authorisation requirements in respect of certain activities.

 

NATIONAL NUCLEAR REGULATOR AMENDMENT BILL

 

• The National Nuclear Regulator Amendment Bill’s explanatory summary was gazetted in anticipation of the Bill being tabled in Parliament. According to a media statement on the Cabinet meeting at which the Bill was approved, it seeks to:
  • align the Act with International Atomic Energy Agency prescripts and best practice
  • provide for measures to address the risk of occupational exposure to cosmic radiation among aircrew
  • close gaps in the Act in respect of financial provisioning for safely decommissioning and rehabilitating nuclear facilities, and
  • strengthen the regulatory framework for decontaminating, decommissioning and closing national defence force facilities, equipment, machinery and scrap for civilian use.

 

MINE HEALTH AND SAFETY

 

• The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy gazetted guidelines on developing and implementing mine-specific codes of practice for managing health-related incapacity.

 

ROAD ACCIDENT FUND

 

• The Road Accident Fund gazetted an adjustment to the statutory limit for loss of income and support claims, which will be in force from 31 July 2023.

 

ELECTORAL ACT

 

• The Independent Electoral Commission called for public comments on:
  • draft amendments to the regulations, and
  • proposed changes to the deposits required when contesting elections.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby