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

There are 29 bills that made their way onto President Cyril Ramaphosa’s desk during the sixth administration, waiting to be signed in the seventh.

According to the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, the bills waiting on the President’s include some of major significance to South Africa and the economy.

These include the:

• Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill;
• Pension Funds Amendment Bill;
• Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill;
• South African National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency SOC Limited Bill;
• Climate Change Bill;
• and the Expropriation Bill.

The full list of current bills waiting to become Acts of Parliament can be found here.

Now that the President’s Cabinet will consist of a multitude of parties with varying political ideologies within the Government of National Unity (GNU)—who have been vocal in their opposition to some of these bills—eyes will be on what happens to these bills.

Section 79 of the Constitution states that once a Bill has been passed by Parliament the “President must either assent to and sign a Bill passed”, or be sent back for further processing. 

The question now is whether the President will sign these bills in their current form or send them back to the newly sworn-in National Assembly or to the Constitutional Court for confirmation.

Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos wrote that “what the President cannot do is to refuse to sign the Bill at all… he must either refer it back to the National Assembly because he is of the view that the Bill is unconstitutional, or he must sign it.”

In practice, the President does not automatically sign a bill into law and applies his mind before doing so. When exercising this right, the President seeks counsel and considers submissions and petitions made to him.

This counsel will likely need to be those within his GNU co-governing agreement, particularly if these departments are headed by differing parties.

Some of the Bills include:

Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill;

The BELA Bill has faced some pushback since its introduction.

According to the Department of Education, “the BELA Bill is making amendments to certain sections of the South African Schools Act (SASA) of 1986 and the Employment of Educators Act (EEA) of 1998 to respond to administrative challenges facing schools to continue the transformation agenda of our education system.”

Some of the major changes coming to schools in the D-Bill include:

• Allowing schools to determine and develop their own language and admission policies, but giving the Department of Basic Education the final say;
• Regulating various aspects of school governing bodies;
• Making Grade R the new compulsory school-starting age;
• Criminalising parents who do not ensure their children are in school;
• Regulating home education;
• Confirming the ban on corporal punishment.

Several key issues were raised in the processing of the bill by the provinces—particularly around language and admission policies—which led to further amendments.

The Bill was sent back to both the NCOP and NA for amendments, which there were was subsequently passed by both houses and sent to the President for assent on 16 May 2024.

Some of the biggest points of contention in the coming laws are the language and admission policies, which saw major opposition from school groups and opposition parties.

According to the Democratic Alliance (which has been reported to have been offered the education department ministry position), which has pushed back against the bill in all committee meetings and again in the National Assembly, minor amendments were made to the bill in an attempt to address this.

This change was to allow schools and school governing bodies to determine their own admission and language policies – but these still have to be submitted to the provincial heads of department (HODs) for approval.

Wording in the bill also lays out that HODs will have to make any changes in consultation with the schools and communities affected. However, they have the final authority to disapprove and change these policies.

Pension Funds Amendment Bill

After being sent back for amendments, the Pension Funds Amendment Bill was passed by both Houses on 16 May 2024.

It ultimately amends the Pension Funds act to provide for a two-pot retirement system.

This creates a provision to allow fund members to access their retirement savings during emergencies without having to resign.

“Traditional retirement systems primarily focus on long-term savings, often lacking the adaptability to address immediate financial crises [however] this reform balances long-term security and immediate needs, recognising life’s unpredictability,” said Parliament.

Head of retirement consulting at the group, Avishal Seeth, outlined that the most crucial points of the system that people should be aware of are:

• From 1 September 2024, any amounts saved in a retirement fund will be split into a savings component and a retirement component;

• One-third (about 33% of retirement savings) automatically goes into the savings component;

• The initial amount in the savings component will be 10% of the amount saved in the vested component, up to a maximum of R30,000;

• The minimum withdrawal amount is R2,000.

President Ramaphosa recently signed Revenue Laws Amendment Bill, but this of legislation and systems still need to be signed, as well as other systems needing to be created, before the Two-Pot retirement system becomes effective.

South African National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency SOC Limited Bill

On 26 March and 16 May 2024, the National Assembly and NCOP respectively passed the South African National Water Resources Infrastructure SOC Bill.

This legislation aims to create the South African National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency (NWRIA) as a significant public entity and state-owned company.

According to the Department of Water and Sanitation, the sweeping reforms are intended to attract private investment, enforce accountability for non-performance, and remedy a crisis that has caused outages nationwide.

The main mandates of the NWRIA are to: 

•  Implement water resource management infrastructure;
• Manage national water resources infrastructure;
• Generate and collect revenue from the sale of water as its primary source of income:
• and Raise commercial funding and operational cash flows (actual and projected) for projects

“Amid water service delivery pressures in some parts of the country, this new Agency is envisioned to help create a reliable water supply in the country,” said Parliament.

While numerous were in support, various parties in Parliament, including those within the GNU, have expressed their disapproval for the establishment of such an entity.

Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill

In a busy legislative day, the NCOP also assented the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill on 16 May.

During the Sixth administration, the Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said that the Bill will “radically transform the structure of the electricity sector” for the better.

The bill seeks to, amongst others:

• Provide for an open market platform that will allow for competitive electricity trading;
• Make provision for the creation of the Transmission Systems Operator (TSO) to act as a wheeler and dealer of electricity;
• Strengthen the role of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) to include powers to license entities that will implement the competitive market and have regulatory oversight during transitioning to a competitive market;
• Introduce provisions on offences and penalties to address the theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure.

Business Leadership South Africa CEO Busiswe Mavuso said that the bill shows “the power of the state and private sector working in tandem [as] the private sector is good at managing operational risk, raising investment and building infrastructure [and] maintaining infrastructure.”

“Good partnerships between the state and private sector are formed when there is appropriate allocation of risks to those who are best positioned to manage them,” said Mavuso.

Although praising the intention of the bills, Mavuso argues that bill “was rushed through parliament,” before the election.

“In the rush, some elements have found their way into the bill that are unhelpful, including discretion granted to the minister on certain matters,” and must be amended within the first 100 days, said Mavuso.

Expropriation Bill

Another highly contentious bill among the parties is that of the Expropriation Bill, which according to Parliament, “outline how expropriation can be done and on what basis [and] assist all organs of State, including the local municipalities who provide services to vulnerable groups.”

On 27 March 2024, the National Assembly approved the Expropriation Bill as amended by the NCOP with a vote of 205 in favour and 108 against.

The Bill allows for local, provincial and national authorities to expropriate land for a public purpose or in the public interest for varied reasons, which allows for no compensation in various instances.

This approval vote marked the end of a 16-year legislative journey.

Following the passing of the Bill, the DA wrote a letter to the President calling it “unconstitutional, poses a direct threat to the Bill of Rights and will not pass constitutional muster in a court of law.”

“As the Expropriation Bill makes its way to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s desk for his signature, the DA has instructed our lawyers to begin working on a letter of demand to the President asking him to refer the Bill back to the National Assembly for consideration on its constitutionality,” said the DA.

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