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BUSINESS LICENSING: DRAFT BILL GAZETTED FOR PUBLIC COMMENT
- 29 September 2025
- Small Business Development
- SA Legal Academy
The Department of Small Business Development has called for input by 26 October 2025 on a draft Business Licensing Bill published long after the original notice announcing its availability was gazetted. Referring stakeholders to the department’s website for access to the draft Bill itself, that notice has since been withdrawn. By close of business on 26 September 2025, there was still no sign of the proposed new piece of legislation on the department’s website.
Backdated to 26 September 2025, the replacement notice (this time including the draft Bill) did not surface until 29 September 23025 – reducing the commentary period by three days.
As its title implies, the legislation envisaged focuses on business licensing and – once finalised, processed by Parliament and enacted – will repeal the 1991 Business Act. According to a memorandum on the draft Bill’s objects, this is noting a long legislative review process beginning in 2010 and including input from the South African Law Reform Commission.
Against that backdrop, among other things the following issues are covered:
- designation of business undertakings
- exemption from business licensing requirements
- preferential licensing for small businesses
- applying for registration as business license holder (including requirements to be met by foreign nationals)
- designated trading areas for citizens and small enterprises
- restriction or prohibition of street trading, and
- provincial and municipal ‘competency’
Please click the link below for more details:
- draft Bill with replacement notice
Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch
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