{"id":347068,"date":"2019-10-18T18:30:27","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T16:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=347068"},"modified":"2019-10-18T15:49:34","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T13:49:34","slug":"3-new-laws-south-africa-wants-to-introduce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/347068\/3-new-laws-south-africa-wants-to-introduce\/","title":{"rendered":"3 new laws South Africa wants to introduce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) will revive a number of bills\u00a0which were not finalised when the fifth term of parliament ended in May 2019.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG) there were <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pmg.org.za\/blog\/LAPSEDBILLS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">39 unfinished bills<\/a> <\/strong>when parliament dissolved, with the NCOP only planning to revive 14 bills at its sitting on Thursday afternoon (17 October).<\/p>\n<p>These bills cover a range of issues including cyber crimes and traditional courts.<\/p>\n<p>Below BusinessTech looked at three of the most notable bills that are being revived and what they mean for South Africans.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Cybercrimes Bill<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill focuses on criminalising the theft and interference of data and bringing South Africa&#8217;s cybersecurity laws in line with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n<p>This includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Creating offences which have a bearing on cybercrime;<\/li>\n<li>Criminalising the distribution of data messages which are harmful and to provide for interim protection orders;<\/li>\n<li>Imposing obligations to report cyber crimes;<\/li>\n<li>Provide that the Executive may enter into agreements with foreign States to promote measures aimed at the detection, prevention, mitigation and investigation of cyber crimes amongst other matters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While the majority of the bill focuses on criminalising the theft and interference of data, it has also introduced new laws surrounding any \u2018malicious\u2019 electronic communication.<\/p>\n<p>Concerns have previously been raised about the \u2018<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/283462\/you-could-soon-face-jail-time-for-sending-these-3-types-of-facebook-or-whatsapp-messages-in-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">vagueness<\/a><\/strong>\u2019 of these messaging rules, especially because of the steep consequences attached to them.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, any person who contravenes one of the following provisions is liable on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding<strong>\u00a0three years<\/strong>, or to both a fine and imprisonment.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A message which incites damage to property or violence;<\/li>\n<li>A message which threatens persons with damage to property or violence;<\/li>\n<li>A message which unlawfully contains an intimate image.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Child Justice Amendment Bill<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The primary objective of the new bill is to increase the minimum age of criminal capacity of children from <strong>10 years to 12 years<\/strong> \u2013 and to remove the requirement to prove criminal capacity for purposes of diversion and preliminary inquiries.<\/p>\n<p>A diversion program is a form of sentence in which the criminal offender joins a rehabilitation program, which will help remedy the behaviour leading to the original arrest and avoid conviction and a criminal record.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>The Traditional Courts Bill<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Traditional Courts Bill promises to shake up South African customary law by giving more power to Traditional Leaders in proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>It also seeks to align traditional courts with the Constitution on issues such as dignity, equality, sexism and LGBTI rights.<\/p>\n<p>The bill has faced controversy as it does not contain an \u2018opt-out provision\u2019 meaning a party cannot opt-out of proceedings being held in a traditional court, in favour of having the matter dealt with by the civil or criminal courts.<\/p>\n<p>Some have also questioned whether the bill is a political ploy by the government to curry favour with traditional leaders.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/346166\/government-is-proposing-changes-to-south-africas-new-demerit-system-and-its-a-nightmare\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Government is proposing changes to South Africa\u2019s new demerit system \u2013 and it\u2019s a \u2018nightmare\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) will revive a number of bills\u00a0which were not finalised when the fifth term of parliament ended in May 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":245533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-347068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347068"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":347506,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347068\/revisions\/347506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}