BUSINESS LICENSING

• The Department of Small Business Development gazetted a draft business licensing policy for public comment. It seeks to:
  • promote ‘licensing justice, efficiency and suitability, and good administration’
  • guarantee the right of every citizen to choose their trade freely
  • assert ‘South Africa’s sovereign right to determine the business licensing conditions for foreign nationals in line with its national interest’
  • reserve sectors ‘in respect of which a license may only be granted to South African citizens’
  • ‘provide for smart and effective licensing legislation, by-laws and administrative procedures’
  • ‘provide for (the) fair, transparent and ethical allocation of business operating licences’
  • ‘promote and strengthen the coordination of concurrent constitutional national and provincial legislative competencies with respect to trade and trading regulations’
  • ‘support provinces in their exclusive provincial legislative competence with regards to street trading’
  • provide for preferential business licensing for SMMEs and historically disadvantaged communities, and to
  • ‘provide for measures to mitigate the effects … (of) economic shocks, crises, or disasters’.

 

LAND TENURE

• The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development gazetted a notice extending the deadline for public comments on draft regulations under the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Act, 1991, which were published in November 2023.
• Once operationalised the proposed new regulations will:
  • prescribe the procedures to be followed when applying for the conversion of a land tenure right into an ownership right
  • require the Minister to issue a notice of application, prescribing the information to be included
  • prescribe the procedures to be followed when objecting to the conversion of a land tenure right to an ownership right, and
  • should the application be successful, require the Minister to notify the registrar accordingly.

 

FINANCIAL SECTOR OMBUD SYSTEM

• National Treasury issued a policy statement on financial sector ombud system reform, informed by a World Bank diagnostic study conducted in 2021. According to an accompanying press release, the following structure is envisaged:
  • ‘a new, consolidated ombud scheme … independent of industry and government (and) replacing six of the current seven schemes’
  • a separate retirement/pension funds ombud/adjudicator, and
  • ‘a modified ombud council’.

 

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS

• The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa gazetted a notice calling for public comments on another set of draft amendments to the end-user and subscriber service charter regulations.

 

BIODIVERSITY ECONOMY

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment gazetted a draft reviewed strategy for the national biodiversity economy, calling for public comments.
• Underpinned by the 2023 White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of South Africa’s Biodiversity, the proposed new strategy focuses on growth and transformation not only in the context of sustainable use, but also noting the fundamental importance of:
  • equitable access and benefit sharing, and
  • enhanced biodiversity conservation.

 

ELECTIONS

• The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa gazetted it most recent amendments to the 2014 political party broadcasting and advertising regulations, along with a media statement on the changes made.

 

PRIVATE SECURITY SERVICES

• The Department of Police gazetted a notice calling for public comments on proposed amendments to the private security industry regulations, 2002. They focus on security service providers in the railway sector and, among other things, have implications for:
  • carrying firearms
  • security equipment
  • incident reporting
  • inspections, and
  • offences and penalties.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby