{"id":836561,"date":"2025-09-02T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=836561"},"modified":"2025-09-02T07:01:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T05:01:14","slug":"ramaphosa-puts-two-new-laws-into-effect-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/836561\/ramaphosa-puts-two-new-laws-into-effect-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramaphosa puts two new laws into effect in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Two new laws have officially gone live in South Africa, with significant changes for policing and language laws in the country.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The President has officially gazetted proclamations announcing the commencement of the 2024 Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) Amendment Act, except for five sections.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2024 IPD Amendment Act affects most aspects of a\u00a02016 Constitutional Court ruling, known as the McBride judgment.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ruling aimed to entrench the IPID\u2019s \u2018institutional and operational independence\u2019, enabling it to function \u2018without any favour or bias.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2019 Amendment Act, which has been in force since November 2024, gave effect to certain Constitutional Court requirements over parliamentary oversight regarding ministerial decisions affecting the IPID\u2019s executive director.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2024 amendment act also mandates the IPID to investigate allegations of rape by members of the SAPS or municipal police service.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They can also investigate any deaths caused by such members, whether on or off duty.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new laws come amidst a challenging period for the SAPS after serious corruption allegations from Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi in July.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mkhwanazi said that a criminal syndicate infiltrated law enforcement and intelligence structures in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He alleged that the Minister of Police, Senzo Mchunu, interfered with a police investigation and colluded to disband the Police Killings Task Team in KZN.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa responded by placing Mchunu on special leave and ordering a special inquiry into police corruption, led by retired Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, due to delays in procuring vital infrastructure, the commission was delayed from its planned start today, 1 September 2025.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ramaphosa has also appointed Professor Firoz Cachalia as Acting Police Minister.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Independent-Police-Investigative-Directorate-IPID-Amendment-Act.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) Amendment Act.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-06572a68-792e-47b5-9502-a59fbedf419f\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Independent-Police-Investigative-Directorate-IPID-Amendment-Act.pdf\">Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) Amendment Act<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Independent-Police-Investigative-Directorate-IPID-Amendment-Act.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-06572a68-792e-47b5-9502-a59fbedf419f\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">New language laws <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>On top of the IPID Amendments, the Presidency announced that the 2014 South African Language Practitioners\u2019 Council Act is also now live.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, the South African Language Practitioners\u2019 Council is mandated to, among other things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Regulate language practice<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Control the accreditation and registration of language practitioners<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Develop rules for governing the conduct of language practitioners, and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Develop procedures for ensuring monitoring and compliance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The new law formally established the Council as a juristic person, in keeping with the 2013 National Language Policy Framework requirements and the constitutional obligations concerning multilingualism.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SA Legal Academy Watch noted that the new Bill should facilitate equal access to information, knowledge, education, and government services and programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It remains unclear why the government officials concerned have taken nearly 11 years to operationalise the Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2014-South-African-Language-Practitioners-Council-Act-.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of 2014 South African Language Practitioners\u2019 Council Act.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-ea16d91c-3b95-4b3a-9730-15bb6a6edbf3\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2014-South-African-Language-Practitioners-Council-Act-.pdf\">2014 South African Language Practitioners\u2019 Council Act<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2014-South-African-Language-Practitioners-Council-Act-.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-ea16d91c-3b95-4b3a-9730-15bb6a6edbf3\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two new pieces of legislation have become operational in South Africa, with one signed into law over a decade ago. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":833377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[13115,23518,23519],"class_list":["post-836561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-pmg","tag-presideny","tag-sa-legal-academy-watch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836561","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836561"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836569,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836561\/revisions\/836569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}