South Africa’s National Climate Change Bill has been gazetted and is open for public comment.

“The purpose of the Bill is to build an effective climate change response and ensure the long-term, just transition to a climate resilient and lower carbon economy and society,” reads a statement from the department of environmental affairs. 

“This will be done within the context of sustainable development for South Africa, and will provide for all matters related to climate change.”

The bill acknowledges that climate change is an urgent threat to human societies and the environment, and that it requires an effective, progressive and well-coordinated response. 

It further highlights that anticipated domestic climate change impacts have the potential to undermine the country’s development goals, and that responses to climate change raise unique challenges, thus requiring a legislative framework for the implementation of the country’s national climate change response. 

Therefore, the bill provides for institutional and coordination arrangements across the national, provincial and local government spheres and include measures such as a ministerial climate change task team. 

The bill also addresses the national adaptation to impacts of climate change, greenhouse gas emissions and removals, and policy alignment and institutional arrangements, and may see the implementation of carbon budgets.

The objects of the bill are to: 

–    Provide for the coordinated and integrated response to climate change and its impacts on all spheres of government in accordance with the principles of cooperative governance;

–     Provide for the effective management of inevitable climate change impacts through enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change, with a view to building social, economic, and environmental resilience and an adequate national adaptation response in the context of the global climate change response;  and to 

–    Make a fair contribution to the global effort to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that avoids dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system within a timeframe and in a manner that enables economic, employment, social and environmental development to proceed in a sustainable manner.

“Section 24 of the Constitution of South Africa states that everyone has a right to an environment that is not harmful to their health and well-being, and that all have the right to have the environment protected for the benefit of present and future generation, while allowing justifiable environmentally sustainable economic and social development,” reads the statement.

The department is undertaking a provincial engagement process, with meetings this month to be held in Mthatha’s Savoy hotel on June 12, Port Elizabeth’s Southern Sun on June 14, the Nkangala District Municipality Council Chambers Middelburg on June 26, the Protea Hotel Kimberley on June 28 and Bloemfontein’s The President Hotel on June 29.

Further meetings will be announced at a later stage.

Members of the public are invited to submit to Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa by August 8.  

The bill can be accessed here. 

JOHANNESBURG – A strike over wages by civil servants has temporarily been called off following a constructive consultation with Social Development Minister Susan Shabangu, the Public Servants Association (PSA) revealed in a statement on Monday.

Union members embarked on a protected strike after salary negotiations with the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) failed.

“The Public Servants Association (PSA) says it had a constructive meeting with the Minister of Social Development, Susan Shabangu, on Monday, resulting in temporary abeyance of the current industrial action by members of the union employed by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa),” the union said in a statement.

“At today’s meeting, the PSA made it clear to the Minister that the Sassa Bargaining Forum is the only recognised structure for negotiating matters of mutual interest for employees,” PSA General Manager Ivan Fredericks said in the statement.

READ: PSA slams unions for signing public sector wage deal

“The PSA is adamant that Sassa is not bound by any bargaining process under the auspices of the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC).”

A follow-up meeting was scheduled for Thursday, the union added.

Fredericks said Shabangu had requested time to consult with relevant stakeholders before the next meeting.

 

eNCA

Lobby group AfriForum is considering taking legal action regarding the expropriation of land without compensation, the organisation said in a statement on Sunday.

AfriForum’s deputy CEO Ernst Roets said the organisation had notified Parliament in writing that it would be consulting its legal team regarding declaring Parliament’s process to amend Section 25 of the Constitution to empower the state to expropriate property without compensation, as illegal.

Roets said this was after attempts by the Constitututional Review Committee to consult with the public regarding the amendment of Section 25 already had to “bid defiance to various procedural crises”.

The committee will embark on its provincial tour to gain public input into the issue from June 26.

READ: Here’s when Parliament’s public hearings on land will be coming to your province

Roets claimed that it seemed to AfriForum that the process related to gaining the public’s input had been manipulated from the beginning to reach an outcome that would support the ruling party’s stance.

He said, “AfriForum has identified ten potential procedural irregularities that may have a substantial impact on the outcome of the process regarding the public hearings that have been organised for this objective and that already need to kick off in two weeks.”

The ten issues include that many of the venues and times at which these public hearings will take place were still not known to the public.

The organisation said the agenda that would be followed was also not known.

“Contradicting lists with different dates and venues for these public hearings were published by the committee. It is clear that the venues that were chosen in which these public hearings will take place are mostly located within wards in which the ruling party has more support.

“Too few public hearings are being arranged, which would exclude a significant section of the South African population. The public hearings are organised within the vicinity of only a small section of the South African population,” said Roets.

He said no security arrangements had been made public regarding the hearings.

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Zweli Mkhize on Sunday denied a media report that he demanded a R4.5m kickback for allegedly facilitating a loan to an oil company from the Public Investment Corporation (PIC).

“The allegations published by the Sunday Times newspaper today, about some R4.5m ‘kickback’ or ‘facilitation fee’ that I am supposed to be seeking due to a loan that was granted to a company called Afric Oil by the Public Investment Corporation are a ridiculous and malicious fabrication,” Mkhize said in a short statement on Sunday.

“I have never facilitated the said loan negotiations nor have I sought any ‘facilitation fee’ from the said company. It is extremely unacceptable and mischievous for my name to be dragged into a matter that I have nothing to do with in this manner.”

Mkhize said he was seeking legal advice on the matter.

His response comes after the Sunday Times this weekend reported that a letter of demand from a Johannesburg law firm had allegedly exposed the requested kickback from Mkhize and other ANC supporters.

According to the Sunday Times, the letter dated October 2017, names Mkhize in a legal claim against Afric Oil.

The letter claims that, at meeting at Luthuli House in 2016, a loan application to the PIC was discussed and Mkhizwe, who was then ANC treasurer general, allegedly agreed to promote Afric Oil’s projects.

It is alleged that this included providing support for the facilitation of the PIC loan.

‘No pending action against me’

In a second and longer statement on Sunday, Mkhize fleshed out his position.

He said he had also received questions from the publication asking if he had any relationship with Zonkizizwe Investments, and whether he facilitated the PIC loan for Afric Oil.

“I made it clear that I have never facilitated such a loan and I have no relationship with Zonkizizwe. This I still maintain. I have also now learnt through the article that there are lawyers who have instituted action against certain parties wherein my name is mentioned.

“To date I have not seen such a lawyer’s letter nor is there any action pending against me or by me on such a matter.”

Mkhize said he had not been provided with “a shred of evidence” on when he had faciliated the alleged loan, or with whom he had engaged with.

“Interestingly enough, despite the Sunday Times establishing that there was a person who confirms having facilitated this PIC loan, the newspaper still elected to make the entire front page headline to revolve around me.”

“In my view it can only be meant to tarnish and defame my name without much substance,” he claimed. He accused “this kind of journalism” of being “sensational and unprofessional”, and an attempt to sell newspapers.

“I reiterate, as said in my earlier statement, that I will immediately seek legal advice on how to deal with this matter and the recourse I can get.”

During his tenure as ANC treasurer general, Mkhize said he met with various companies who would brief him on operations.

“This is no way meant that my intervention was required. At no stage did I enter into an agreement to facilitate loans for a fee,” he concluded.

DURBAN – The much-punted “unity” being sought by the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) was absent on Friday night as furious members heckled and booed senior party officials while the latter was to explain why the provincial conference was cancelled.

READ: KZN ANC denies unity-slate talks ahead of conference

The province was set to re-run its eighth conference from Friday to Sunday at the University of Zululand to elect a new leadership.

But, the granting of an urgent interdict by the High Court in Pietermaritzburg just after 6 pm on Friday evening saw chaos descend on the troubled province.

Unhappy delegates, who had been registering at the time the court’s decision was made known, gathered at the university’s Bhekuzulu Hall looking for answers when word started trickling in that the conference would be changed to a “consultative” one.

READ: Ramaphosa is rich, won’t be tempted to steal: Mantashe

But the delegates scuppered their own search for clarity when they refused to allow ANC chairman Gwede Mantashe to speak. Instead, they started singing songs questioning the party’s attitude to former president Jacob Zuma and accused Mantashe of belonging to the faction that brought the application for the interdict.

#ANCKZN @sziks intervenes in trying to get ANC members to let @GwedeMantashe1 National Chairperson of the ANC to speak. pic.twitter.com/rdDQfNwdjJ

— Samkele Maseko (@samkelemaseko) June 8, 2018

“If this is an ANC meeting, I will speak here tonight. If it is a factional meeting, I will not speak. Regional chairpersons must talk to their delegates. I am going to speak here tonight,” Mantashe told the unhappy delegates. He was supposed to deliver the keynote address at the conference before it was cancelled.

Before Mantashe took to the podium, ANC provincial co-ordinator Sihle Zikalala told delegates the conference would now become a consultative one that would discuss ANC resolutions taken at the Nasrec national conference and the 2019 national elections.

WATCH: KZN ANC members go on the rampage

Zikalala introduced national executive committee (NEC) members present, but the crowd booed when Mantashe, Bheki Cele, and Jackson Mthembu’s names were mentioned. Mantashe was determined to speak, but the delegates would have none of it, only responding to Zikalala.

Mantashe even took to his verified Twitter account to vent his frustration. “An ANC meeting here is disrupted by a minority. When you speak, Cde Sihle Zikalala, they stop. They have an impression that they are your faction, they are not,” he tweeted.

An ANC meeting here, is disrupted by a minority. When you speak Cde Sihle Zikalala, they stop. They have an impression that they are your faction, and they are not. #ANCKZN

— Gwede Mantashe (@GwedeMantashe1) June 8, 2018

The meeting was eventually cancelled as delegates started leaving. It is set to resume on Saturday morning, but no programme has yet been made available.

African News Agency