New laws for South Africa that have lapsed – including changes for smoking

There were 30 bills that were introduced during but not completed when the Sixth Parliament ended, and now that the Seventh Parliament has started, what happens to them?

According to National Assembly Rule 333, the following bills lapsed when Parliament was dissolved on 21 May 2024.

According to information from the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, since the Sixth Parliament commenced, some of the bills that have lapsed (and as of 5 July 2024 remain lapsed) include the:

• National State Enterprises Bill;
• Repeal of South African Airways Bill;
• Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill (smoking laws)
• Immigration Amendment Bill
• Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill
• Local Government: Municipal Structures Second Amendment Bill
• Ease of Doing Business Bill
• Pension Funds Amendment Bill
• Constitution Nineteenth Amendment Bill (limit the motions of no confidence against the Cabinet and President)

A full list of bills that have been lapsed can be found here.

It is important to note that bills lapsing does not mean that they are dead and buried.

Bills can be revived by members of the new Parliament from the stage it reached before lapsing , as was the case for the Appropriation Bill, which lapsed on 21 May, but revived on 2 July.

This Bill was tabled by the Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana in late February 2024, which, broadly, provides the provision to appropriate money from the National Revenue Fund for the requirements of the State for the 2024/25 financial year.

With Godongwana retaining his position in the new Cabinet, his proposed legislation was quickly revived.

Some of the other Bills which could see themselves being revived include:

National State Enterprises Bill

In January 2024, former Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan tabled the National State Enterprises Bill at the National Assembly, which proposes significant changes to how State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) operate in the country.

The Bill broadly sets out to do the following:

• The development of a strategy for national state enterprises;
• Establishment of the State Asset Management SOC Ltd (SAMco) with the State as the sole shareholder;
• Provides for various mechanisms to operationalise a state-owned holding company for national commercial state-owned enterprises.  

SAMco will hold ownership interests in thirteen key national government commercial enterprises, which can be subsidiaries, and will essentially replace the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE).

This was seen to be set in motion during the announcement of the seventh administration’s Cabinet, with President Cyril Ramaphosa dissolving the DPE.

There “will no longer be a ministry of public enterprises. The coordination of the relevant public enterprises will be located in the Presidency during the process of implementing a new shareholder model,” said Ramaphosa at the Cabinet announcement.

Only “strategic” SOEs will be transferred over time.

According to the ammended Bill, these are:

• Eskom;
• Transnet;
• South African Post Office;
• Denel;
• South African Airways;
• South African National Roads Agency;
• Airports Company South Africa;
• South African Nuclear Energy Corporation;
• Central Energy Fund;
• Sentech;
• South African Forestry Company;
• Air Traffic and Navigation Services Company;
• Broadband Infraco.

However, getting this through may be easier said than done.

After losing its majority in Parliament, the ANC formed a broad coalition with the backing of the IFP and DA. The ANC can thus no longer push through a Bill through Parliament without the help of its former rivals, who have been vocal about their opposition to some aspects of the Bill.

Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill

In December 2022, the former Minister of Health Dr. Joe Phaahla introduced the Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill, which aims to shake-up South Africa’s tobacco landscape.

It broadly looks to:

• Declare indoor public places and certain outdoor areas 100% smoke-free;
• Ban the sale of cigarettes through vending machines;
• Require plain packaging with graphic health warnings and pictorials;
• Ban the display at point-of-sale;
• Regulate and control electronic nicotine delivery systems and non-nicotine delivery systems.

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health said that it wants to introduce these changes to the country’s smoking laws “to strengthen public health protection measures, align South African tobacco control laws with the World Health Organization Framework Convention and repeal the Tobacco Control Act of 1993”.

This was echoed by Dr Catherine Egbe from the South African Medical Research Council, who said that if Parliament were to pass the Bill, it would help reduce the impact long-term tobacco use and the burden of tobacco-related diseases.

This bill has been making its way across the country several times for the public to debate it, which has largely left people divided.

Some opponents have said that they worry that the bill will see small-scale traders of losing a significant source of their income because of the ban, leave a dent on South Africa’s tax base given the size of the industry, and that there the subsequent boom in the illicit cigarette market following the bill.

These opponents called on the government to rather increase their attention on the black-market tobacco scene, better educate the public about the harmful effects of nicotine, and provide a better understanding of how the bill would be effectively enforced.

Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill, 2024

Gazetteed on 21 May 2024 by DA MP (and now Basic Education Minister) Siviwe Gwarube, the bill is said to intend to prepare South Africa for a coalition politics landscape, particularly at a local level.

Briefly, the Bill seeks to:

• Set a minimum threshold of 1% for a party to be eligible for council seats;
• Bind coalition agreements;
• Change municipalities with a mayoral executive system, in which no party obtained a majority of seats, to a collective executive system within a prescribed period;
• Have council elections or impeachments of municipal office-bearers to be by a show of hands;
• Set out further grounds and rules for removal of municipal office-bearers from office.

“The Bill comes as a result of a public outcry for a framework, or guidelines or legislation given rise [of hung municipalities, and this increase] signaled the need to strengthen coalition governance to address challenges related to poor governance, service delivery and instability in municipal councils,” said the Department of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).

The department said that there needs to be a “framework or guidelines or legislation that will guide the formation and management of coalition governments.”

Now that coalition politics is seen to be the future of South Africa’s political landscape, at least for the time being, given that this spread to national and provincial levels following the 2024 general elections, it is likely to be revived.

This was seen by COGTA recently extending the deadline for public comments on the bill to 31 July 2024.

One of the most contentious provision in the bill is that of the threshold.

Independent political analyst Michael Atkins wrote that “while superficially attractive, this is a huge problem.”

Atkins used the 270-seat Johannesburg council as an example of this in practice, showing that this provision benefits larger parties in council, excluding smaller parties and possible independents.

This would be quite the shake-up. If this proposed amendment applied in the City of Johannesburg, its mayor, Kabelo Gwamanda would have not made it to council. His party, Al-Jama Ah (which holds 3 seats in 270 seat council) achieved a 0.95% vote share in the city’s 2021 municipal elections.

“In a diverse society, thresholds are undemocratic, acting as a closed shop for established parties, shutting out new entrants and smaller demographics and interest-groups,” said Atikins.

“It is also logically absurd to have thresholds for parties, when you have a system that allows independent candidates [and the] Bill does not even attempt to differentiate between municipalities of differing sizes,” he added.

“I get that people are frustrated with some of those parties, but you should not punish all small parties for the behaviour of some… or disenfranchise voters,” said Atkins.

Pension Fund Amendment Bill

In late 2020, Dr. Dion George, now Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment, proposed an amendment to the 1956 Pension Funds Act.

This amendment aims to introduce a savings withdrawal benefit, detail the accounting of members’ savings and retirement interests, permit specific deductions, and address related issues.

The Bill is seen as likely to be revived as Ramahposa recently signed the Revenue Laws Amendment Bill of 2023, which establishes a “two-pot” system that gives members of retirement funds access to retirement savings without having to resign or cash out entire pension funds.

Old Mutual said that the signing of the Pension Fund Amendment Bill and the finalising and signing of the Revenue Second Amendment Bill are absolutely critical before the legislation is completely in place for implementation.

Read: 29 new laws waiting for Ramaphosa’s signature – including big changes for electricity and schools