03 February 2025
From the Government Gazette and Media Statements (3 February 2025)

BILLS SIGNED INTO LAW
- Three more Bills were signed into law and the Acts concerned gazetted. They are not yet in force.
- According to a Presidency media statement, the Preservation and Development of Agricultural Land Act is expected to:
- ensure the nationwide co-ordination and harmonisation of provincial agricultural sector and land use policy development and planning
- promote and preserve ‘a sustainable agricultural environment’, and
- optimise the use of arable land for food production.
- A Presidency media statement on the Housing Consumer Protection Act’s overarching objective notes that:
- it is expected to ensure that the home building industry is more effectively regulated
- will also apply to subsidised housing projects, homeowner builders, repair work, renovations, alterations and extensions to an existing home, and
- is expected to prevent the delivery and proliferation of sub-standard housing.
- Once operationalised, according to a Presidency media statement the Marine Pollution (Prevention of Pollution from Ships) Amendment Act:
- will align the principal statute with the international convention concerned, and
- is expected to strengthen measures intended to curb air and sewage pollution from ships.
CORRECTIONAL SERVICES
- A Government Gazette notice confirmed that the 2021 Correctional Services Amendment Act is now in force. Aligning the principal statute with the requirements of a 2019 Constitutional Court ruling on parole and correctional supervision, the amendments concerned lay the foundation for determining the minimum periods to be served by a sentenced offender before becoming eligible for release on parole.
HUMAN SETTLEMENTS
- The revised White Paper on Human Settlements was gazetted following a public consultation process begun in January 2024. Focusing on society’s poor, vulnerable and ‘missing middle’ housing imperatives, the new policy is ‘anchored’ in government’s ongoing commitment to the development of sustainable integrated human settlements. Central to this is ‘a spatial assertion premised on the integration of four key elements’:
- infrastructure, services, and housing
- land use patterns
- operational and governance relations, and
- socio-economic patterns.
- The new White Paper:
- is underpinned by ‘several policy shifts’, including the prioritisation of:
- ‘participatory and incremental informal settlement upgrading … in-situ wherever possible’ (informed by the development of ‘optimal’ institutional, technical, planning, tenure and procedural mechanisms)
- ‘the upgrading of temporary relocation areas that can no longer be deemed to be temporary’ (including the innovative redevelopment, and where appropriate, densification of apartheid-era hostels and inner city occupied buildings)
- facilitating the creation of conditions to enable housing self-provisioning by low-income households (including ‘managed land settlement’ and ‘the release of serviced stands/land in locations that tie households into the economy’, and
- interventions to promote the creation of thriving ‘non-exploitative and fairly regulated’ rental and subsidised social housing sectors
- provides for the establishment of a multilateral ‘national stakeholder forum’ with the intention of facilitating collaboration and the ‘co-production’ of human settlement initiatives, and
- provides for a review of the housing code so that it encompasses ‘new approaches, strategies and programmes’ appropriate to the delivery of integrated and sustainable human settlements.
PRIVATE SECURITY INDUSTRY
- The Department of Police gazetted notices calling for public comments on two sets of draft regulations affecting the private security industry:
- the draft regulations on working animals focus on:
- the requirements and standards to be met by animal suppliers, trainers and users, and
- include general care obligations applicable to all industry stakeholders keeping and working with dogs and horses.
- once in force, the draft regulations on assets in transit are expected to:
- ‘ensure’ their safe and secure movement, and
- facilitate the maintenance of a safe working environment for the personnel involved.
CONSERVATION
- The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment gazetted a draft elephant heritage strategy for public comment. Proposing a framework for planning and implementing a ‘living landscape with elephants’, the draft strategy:
- is underpinned by a ‘high-level vision’ for the nationwide management and long-term conservation of elephants as a meta-population, and
- seeks to maintain a sensitive balance between conserving the species and the needs of people living in areas affected by them.
Prepared by Pam Saxby

We host the latest posts of this blog, written by People's Assembly. You can find more on PA's blog.

We host the latest posts of this blog, written by People's Assembly. You can find more on PA's blog.