It is hoped that this article will be published by Landbou Weekblad. I can tell you it's hard to get articles in that publication.
I'm now reading that the so called government does not read or consider comments. This is the extent to which we, as citizens, and reluctant tax payers are taken for absolute fools. This is across the board. A president with a standard three can come up with more sound policies (please do not think I'm referring to that thief zuma). But we engage and talk and fawn and fail the people around us.
The Poland incident shows the extent to which we as a country are a joke in the eyes of the world. It's heartbreaking
If you want to publish the story below - please do.
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There is a simple rule that needs to be followed when it comes to government policies that require public participation, specifically South African policies – the government cannot be trusted. It’s that simple. It cannot be trusted to govern and certainly cannot be trusted to consider constructive comments on its policies.
There are two controversial regulations that have been requested for public comment and are currently in their comment period. The first is the Draft Employment Equity Regulations, which gives the minister the power to set regional and national targets for racial representivity at the various management levels in the private sector. The second, and most pertinent to the agricultural sector are the proposed water licence application regulations.
Agri SA CEO, Christo van der Rheede recently told Business Times (June 10 2023) that the regulations were transparent political opportunism. In fact he went so far, correctly I would say, to describe them as “short term populist thinking that is geared towards the 2024 elections.”
A reading of the regulations does suggest that these requirements are for new water licences and an amendment of an existing water use licence. The issue that we as citizens and business people face in this country, is that we know what the intention of the legislation is, it’s the administrators who issue those licences that either don’t know or choose not to know. This is where the real danger lies.
The period for consultation and comments ends in mid July 2023. Minister in the Presidency told the Business Times (June 10 2023) that the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, would “undertake a thorough consultation process on the black ownership requirements before any proposal was implemented.”
I find this extremely hard to believe. In the 20 odd years that I have been operating in the black economic empowerment sector I haves seen how the current government pays little or no attention to any constructive comments that disagree with their policies. When the revised BEE codes were gazetted in 2012, the minister of trade and industry claimed that they had received 550 constructive comments and yet went ahead and gazetted the original BEE codes almost as they were drafted. Roy Cockayne noted in a recent Moneyweb article about the draft employment equity regulations that the Construction Alliance South Africa (CASA)
tirelessly tried to convince the department to work together with the alliance, which is not arguing against the motive behind the setting of targets for the industry, but rather what targets can realistically, reasonably, and rationally be enforced on companies. “We outlined to them, some of the constitutional flaws that exist in that legislation as it stands, and the need for a more detailed exercise and research to look at what the numbers look like if the targets they are considering are implemented,” Campbell said. “They [DEL] went through the motions of the consultation with very little appetite to absorb, or take in [suggestions], or even collaborate.”
It's very likely that the minister’s assurances will amount to nothing. If anything it’s likely that the Ministry will only look at comments that support the regulations, as the African Farmers Association of South Africa has indicated that they would do.
Where does leave the agricultural sector. It can’t not comment, in fact I would recommend that each player in the sector from the farmers through to the co-operatives and other related bodies submit comments. Even if they are the same comment. In the likelihood that these comments are ignored and the regulations are gazetted as is, or barely amended. If this is the case then we can expect litigation which is possibly what the government wants, it wants to use it as a tool against certain population groups that are resistant to transformation.
There’s a step on between. Something that I should have considered many years ago and that is making an application to the department in terms of the Protection of Access to Information Act (PAIA) and requesting a copy of the many comments to check whether the government did in fact apply its mind in the process. It’s likely that this stage of the process will show that the government did not in fact apply its mind.
Paul Janisch is a BEE consultant who has realised that BEE is only for a boom economy, which is not where the South African economy is recently.
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