COVID-19

• The Department of Health has issued a Government Gazette notice repealing ‘in their entirety’ amendments made in February to regulations on the surveillance and control of notifiable medical conditions.
• The February 2022 code of practice for managing exposure to Sars-CoV-2 in the workplace has been replaced. According to a media statement issued by Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi, it ‘remains the guiding principle’ in dealing with the virus among employees.

 

MENTAL HEALTH FACILITIES

• Draft licensing regulations have been gazetted for public comment. Focusing on day and residential care, once in force they will also apply to facilities catering for people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities.

 

ROAD FREIGHT

• A media statement has been issued confirming that an ‘eleven-point action plan’ for dealing with challenges stemming from the recruitment of foreign truck drivers has been agreed between stakeholders and the inter-ministerial committee concerned.

 

DIGITAL MIGRATION

• Guidelines have been gazetted on the procedures to be followed in obtaining permission to use the ‘Go Digital’ trademark for free-to-air set top boxes and integrated digital TV sets.

 

ELECTORAL AMENDMENT BILL

• The National Assembly’s Home Affairs Committee has issued a media statement on the status of discussions on key issues, informed by input from:
  • the Independent Electoral Commission
  • the Office of the State Law Adviser, and
  • Parliamentary Legal Services.

 

JUSTICE

• The Rules Board for Courts of Law has called for input on a proposed amendment to Uniform Rule 4(1)(a), which regulates the ‘service of documents’.
• The South African Law Reform Commission has published a revised discussion paper on it ongoing review of the 1957 Witchcraft Suppression Act. According to an accompanying media statement, among other things the paper recommends that the 1957 Act be repealed and replaced with legislation:
  • penalising the practice of ‘harmful witchcraft or instil(ling) fear in others that they will be bewitched’, but
  • ‘not restricting harmless practices associated with Wicca or traditional healing’.

 

PETROLEUM RESOURCES AND PRODUCTS

• The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has gazetted a notice announcing the implementation of amendments to the 2004 regulations affecting permission, rights and permit applications. The amendments were released in draft form in February for comment. However, it is not clear if a final version was ever published.
• The commencement of regulations on petroleum product specifications and standards gazetted in August 2021 has been postponed from September 2023 to 1 July 2027.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

• The second iteration of a shark management and conservation action plan has been published.
• Biodiversity plans for the honeybush and aloe have been gazetted.

 

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATION

• Draft regulations on foreign service have been gazetted for public comment. They deal with:
  • eligibility for recruitment
  • protocols
  • training
  • discipline
  • transfer, and
  • recall.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby