Keeping Track of Provincial Legislation with Sabinet Discover
Keeping up with the changes in national legislation that might affect you or your business is already hard enough, and can become so much more complicated when you have to take the differences in provincial legislation into account. It is with these challenges in mind that Sabinet Discover was created.
With Sabinet Discover, checking up on provincial legislation becomes as effortless as using a search engine, but with far more specialised and relevant results from carefully curated and pre-approved sources. This is just one of many types of legislative resources that can be accessed easily and efficiently through Sabinet Discover.
Why Provincial Legislation Matters
There are important areas where provincial legislation can have significant implications and even some areas where it necessarily supersedes the national legislation. The provincial legislature in South Africa can be split into two main areas according to its effects. The first involves the areas where provinces may exercise legislative and executive powers that do not contradict legislation on the national level. The second involves areas where provinces have exclusive control in terms of legislation.
Some key areas where the provincial legislature can differ from province to province as long as it does not contradict national legislature include agriculture, casinos and gambling in general, all cultural affairs, health services, environment, nature conservation, language policy, police services, public transport, tourism, vehicle licensing, welfare services and all levels of education except universities. While these need to conform to national requirements, their implementation can differ greatly from province to province.
More significantly, there are some important areas where provincial governments, and therefore provincial legislature, hold exclusive competency. These include abattoirs, ambulance services, liquor licenses, and several localised matters such as provincial planning and provincial roads and traffic legislation. The provincial legislation predominantly governs over these areas and will be prioritised over national legislature, should a conflict arise.
These considerations for the provincial government and legislative powers are enshrined in our constitution, and while provincial differences can lead to a great many complications, it also allows provinces to tailor their solutions to their particular problems.
Given the significant implications that changes in provincial legislation can have in these key areas, making sure that you have access to the most relevant information related to provincial legislation is immensely important for a wide range of entities, from small businesses to national corporations.
How Can Sabinet Discover Assist You?
Through the Sabinet Discover search portal, you can easily search for and access the latest and most up-to-date information relating to the South African legislature. This includes provincial legislature, but also national and municipal legislature, government gazettes, and constant updates to Acts and Ordinances as they are released.
3 Reasons to Use Sabinet Discover to Access Information:
- Accessing up-to-date information is easy. Our weekly newsletter informs you about key changes in legislation, saving you valuable research time. You can access the most recent legislative changes per province from the ‘What’s New’ menu option. Search through Acts, Ordinances and Regulations as they apply to each province, organised both alphabetically and chronologically.
- We provide an illustrated timeline, and clearly marked amendments, as well as direct links to related historical gazetted information.
- Our search considers the historical provincial structure, making it easy to access information prior to 1994, and our point-in-time functionality lets you pinpoint specific dates and periods from 1910 onwards.
Don’t run afoul of changes in legislation because they slipped under your radar. Sabinet Discover makes it easy to know what you need to know when you need to know it. Provincial legislation is constantly evolving, changing, and being amended as plans need to be better aligned with reality. Luckily, staying abreast of important developments has never been easier.
Should you wish to make use of this invaluable service, you can check out the Sabinet Discover search portal or Sabinet Journals to get a sense of user-friendly our platform is, and how accessible it makes any important information relating to provincial legislation, or any other South African legislation. You can also download our brochure on our provincial legislation information services here. If you want to know how Sabinet can assist in your particular case, please feel free to contact us.