Category: South Africa Government

Source: South Africa News Agency

The Department of Agriculture has announced the commencement of the new Plant Breeders’ Rights Act, 2018 (Act No. 12 of 2018) and its regulations with effect from 1 June 2025.

This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the proclamation of the new Plant Breeders’ Rights Act, 2018 (Act No. 12 of 2018) after the approval of the regulations by the Agriculture Minister, John Steenhuisen.

The Plant Breeders’ Rights Act, 2018 (Act No.12 of 2018) is the repeal of the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act, 1976 (Act No. 15 of 1976). The proclamation of this Act and its regulations was published in Government Gazette No. 52184 on 6 June 2025 and Government Gazette No. 52850 of 13 June, respectively.

The Act provides for a system whereunder plant breeders’ rights relating to varieties of certain kinds of plants may be granted; for the requirements that must be complied with for the granting of such rights; scope and protection of such rights; and granting of licences in respect of the exercise of such rights and matters connected therewith.

Revisions in the new Act include the following:
•    Streamlined administrative processes;
•    Scope of plants eligible for protection extended to all genera and species;
•    Periods of protection revised to up to 30 years in the case of fruit trees, vines, sugar cane and potatoes, and 25 years for all other crops;
•    Categories of farmers, crops and quantities in relation to farm-saved seed defined; and
•    The establishment of an advisory committee, including representation from a wide range of stakeholders such as breeders, farmers and intellectual property law specialists.

The department highlighted that the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act, 2018 (Act No. 12 of 2018), will contribute to the South African Government’s objectives and priorities by promoting innovation in plant breeding and agriculture.

“Through the protection of new plant varieties, the Act plays a vital role in enhancing food security, increasing agricultural productivity, and supporting rural development growth. Additionally, the new Act will encourage investment in plant breeding, foster job creation, and supporting economic development,” the department said in a statement on Monday.

The new Plant Breeders’ Rights Act, 2018 (Act No. 12 of 2018) and its regulations can be accessed on the Department of Agriculture website on: https://www.nda.gov.za  – SAnews.gov.za
 

Source: South Africa News Agency

Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) has announced the appointment of Beth Arendse as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 July 2025. 

With over 25 years of leadership experience in South Africa’s creative and cultural sectors, Beth brings visionary insight, strategic expertise, and an unwavering commitment to inclusive growth. 

“Throughout her career, she has pioneered initiatives that seamlessly integrate the arts, entrepreneurship and education, empowering emerging creatives and advocating for the sustainable development of the creative economy. 

“Arendse’s notable contributions include founding transformative platforms such as the Tshwane School of Music, the SA Creative Industries Incubator (SACII), and the Music Business Lab – programmes that have equipped hundreds of young creatives with essential skills, market access and business knowledge, enabling them to thrive in an increasingly competitive and evolving sector,” BASA said on Monday.

Beyond programme leadership, Arendse has served on prominent national advisory bodies, including the Presidential Commission for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the National Advisory Council on Innovation. 

Her expert input has helped shape policies aimed at strengthening the creative sector’s adaptability to technological change and shifting economic landscapes.

“In the rigorous process of identifying a CEO, we were spoilt for choice by the calibre of candidates we had the opportunity to interact with, which speaks highly of the value that has been built in the BASA brand over the years. 

“However, Beth’s undeniable passion for the creative industries, her entrepreneurial spirit, as well as her innovative approach to dealing with challenges and opportunities, won the day in the end.  We are excited to be taking this step with her,” Chairperson of the BASA Board Zingisa Motloba said.

BASA said Arendse’s appointment comes at a pivotal moment as the organisation recommits to positioning the creative economy in its rightful place at the heart of South Africa’s national development agenda. 

Under her leadership, BASA aims to focus on unlocking the full economic, cultural, and innovation potential of the creative sector as a vital driver of inclusive growth. 

“I step into this role with a deep belief in the power of the creative economy to shape South Africa’s future—not only to inspire, but to generate economic opportunity, create livelihoods, and unlock the country’s full creative and economic potential. 

“I’m honoured to lead BASA into its next chapter and look forward to forging bold partnerships that position creatives as key architects of our economic and social progress,” Arendse said. 

BASA was founded in 1997 as a joint initiative between government and the private sector as part of a strategy to secure greater involvement in the arts from businesses operating in South Africa. – SAnews.gov.za

Source: South Africa News Agency

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Source: South Africa News Agency

The Department of Agriculture, in collaboration with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), has unveiled the second phase of the Africa Phytosanitary Programme (APP).

APP is an initiative of the IPPC and FAO, which aims to strengthen the resilience of Africa’s phytosanitary systems against plant pests of regulatory, economic, and environmental significance, using cutting-edge digital tools.

Held in White River, Mpumalanga on Monday, the launch brought together over 50 phytosanitary specialists from nine countries, including Algeria, Cape Verde, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Liberia, Malawi, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia.

The countries will take part in a weeklong Train-the-Trainer (ToT) workshop in advanced pest surveillance techniques, including the use of customised digital tools and applications for monitoring, detecting, and reporting major pests of economic, regulatory, and environmental importance in Africa.

The participants will be equipped with state-of-the-art tablets for geospatial pest surveillance, use field survey protocols developed by technical experts, and undertake practical sessions using the pest survey tools.

Delivering remarks on behalf of Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, Jan Hendrik Venter, Director of Plant Health at the Department of Agriculture, emphasised Africa’s potential to become a global leader in high-quality plant product trade.

“Africa stands at a turning point. With immense biodiversity, rising agricultural productivity, and growing opportunities under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), we are well-positioned to become a global leader in the trade of high-quality plant products.

“But this vision can only be achieved if we ensure that the movement of plants and plant products is safe, traceable, and fully compliant with international phytosanitary standards,” Venter said.

Venter added that well-trained, well-equipped plant health officials across the continent, are the best line of defence in maintaining pest-free or low-prevalence status, “an essential condition for accessing these lucrative markets.”

The first and pilot phase of APP started in 2023, engaging phytosanitary specialists from Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Phase 2 builds on achievements made in the pilot phase and aims to train plant health officers, who upon their return to their countries will teach their peers in the national plant protection organisations (NPPOs) and other government stakeholders on the use of the APP suite of digital tools.

“We are building a critical mass of phytosanitary inspectors, technicians and officers across Africa, by equipping plant health officers with the tools and skills to prevent and address major plant pest threats, that ultimately jeopardise food security, agricultural trade, economic growth and the environment,” FAO Deputy Director General and IPPC Officer-in-Charge, Beth Bechdol said in her video message.

Funded through generous contributions from the European Union and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, APP phase two builds on support from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) which funded phase one in 2023.

FAO and the IPPC are working to replicate and scale up the benefits from APP to more African countries and other regions.

Mitigating the pest problem in Africa

Globally, plant pests are responsible for destroying about 40 percent of crop yields, resulting in economic losses of approximately USD 220 billion.

In Africa, the impacts of climate change are exacerbating the problem, with invasive pests such as, fruit flies, false codling moth, maize lethal necrosis disease, citrus greening and fall armyworm – causing major damages.

According to the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) data, fall armyworm alone is estimated to cause the highest yield loss in Africa – USD 9.4 billion annually.

The African Union’s Plant Health Strategy for Africa highlights that limited technical capability remains a key barrier to achieving sustainable agriculture on the continent.

Through APP, FAO, the IPPC and partners aim to strengthen plant health systems and build national phytosanitary capacity across Africa. – SAnews.gov.za

Source: South Africa News Agency

Home Affairs Minister, Dr Leon Schreiber, on Monday announced that the department will on 1 July 2025 begin the rollout of an upgraded National Population Register (NPR) verification service to all companies and government users to verify identities with speed and reliability.

This enhanced service, which will boost service delivery from government departments and enhance financial inclusion in the private sector, will be accompanied by tariff increases implemented after widespread public consultation and after concurrence was obtained from the Minister of Finance.

The department has since 2013 provided the service – known as the online verification system (OVS) – to third parties that connects them to the NPR. 

This allows these registered users to check identities and other biographical information of their clients against the Home Affairs database.

However, since its rollout more than a decade ago at a low cost to users, the demands on the OVS have far outstripped the capacity at which it was originally designed. 

Since then, there has been no substantive upgrade to the system, while demand and the costs of maintaining the infrastructure increased year-on-year. 

“Due to the upgrade stasis and the increased demands placed on the OVS by institutions – and exorbitant over-use by some institutions owing to unsustainably low prices – users now experience a staggering failure rate in excess of 50% on verification checks against the NPR.

“Even in the case of successful verifications, response times often take hours, thereby defeating the purpose of real-time verification. 

“Both of these factors are directly undermining services that require such verifications, including through the OVS and at Home Affairs offices,” said the department.

Under-investment and overloading of the OVS is a key factor behind the challenge of having “offline systems” at frontline offices. Additionally, an unreliable NPR poses a direct threat to national security as it undermines the ability of the State to verify identities.

The under-pricing of this service – with fees as low as R0.15 per verification – has deprived the State of the resources required to maintain and enhance the NPR. 

In turn, said the department, certain private sector users of the OVS have relied on this artificially low price to inflate their corporate profits at the expense of the quality of services received by the public, while also overwhelming the NPR with queries to such an extent that the failure rate now routinely exceeds 50%.

Effective from 1 July 2025, and following significant development work by the department and its service providers, a new OVS will be rolled out to all users. 

The upgraded OVS functions as a sleek, modern system that delivers what it was designed to do. It now performs in real-time and the failure rate has been reduced to below 1%.

For the first time, the new system will also introduce an option for users to do “non-live batch verifications” during off-peak hours at a significantly lower fee than real-time verifications. 

This will offer both a cost-effective alternative to real-time verifications and incentivise users to stop overloading the OVS’ live queue, reducing the “system offline” challenge at frontline Home Affairs offices.

As a result, and for the first time in more than a decade, Home Affairs has increased the fees for a single real-time verification check to R10 per transaction. 

For non-live batch verifications where a user wishes to verify multiple records simultaneously during off-peak periods, the cost will be R1 per verification field request. 

This cost is appropriate for the service provided and is not unreasonable when viewed against the costs charged to clients of the organisations utilising the OVS, according to the department. 

There will be no charge for the use of this service by other government departments.

The Minister said this was a matter of national security as every responsible State must take the necessary steps to ensure a functional population register. 

“This upgrade also advances financial inclusion and makes a significant contribution to South Africa’s attempts to get off the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list. 

“I thank the many stakeholders who expressed support for this vital reform in the interest both of national security and of South Africa Inc during our public consultations and call upon all users of the OVS to rise above narrow profiteering to support the safeguarding of national security,” the Minister said.

“A healthy NPR is also a prerequisite for a functional Digital ID, as the NPR must become the central database against which identities are verified as Home Affairs becomes a digital-first department.

“This investment in the NPR is an investment in national security, in financial inclusion, and in the value of our cherished South African identity that will pay off handsomely for our country,” Schreiber said.

Organisations who would like to be connected to the new OVS must send an email to verifications@dha.gov.za.

A copy of the gazette containing the new fee schedule can be accessed at https://www.dha.gov.za/images/gazettes/gazette-52893-230625-dha.pdf. – SAnews.gov.za

Source: South Africa News Agency

Deputy President to speak at G20 youth roundtable in Johannesburg

Gabisile
Tue, 06/24/2025 – 10:08

Source: South Africa News Agency

MEC gives youth development initiative the thumbs up

Gabisile
Tue, 06/24/2025 – 09:00

Source: South Africa News Agency

Life imprisonment for Limpopo farm murder accused

NeoB
Tue, 06/24/2025 – 08:15