PARLIAMENT: IMPORTANT CABINET-APPROVED BILLS STILL NOT TABLED

PARLIAMENT: IMPORTANT CABINET-APPROVED BILLS STILL NOT TABLED

• 05 February 2026
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

Media statements on Cabinet meetings held during 2025 refer to several Bills approved for tabling in Parliament but yet to materialise. They include a Gas Bill approved on 5 December 2025 and seeking to:

• ‘introduce a modernised legislative framework … reflect(ing) recent technological developments in gas transportation and storage’
• address ‘challenges experienced in … implement(ing) and enforce(ing) the current Act” (which will be repealed)
• improve gas resource and infrastructure management ‘in line with global best practices and national energy priorities’
• empower the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to:
  • ‘set, monitor and regulate distribution tariffs’
  • ‘regulate the registration regime’, and
  • determine ‘suitable’ licence timeframes, and
• ‘provide … for … (the) centralised strategic planning … (of) new gas … transmission and regasification facilities.

Still not tabled, an Employment Services Bill approved on 28 May 2025 will seek to:

• provide ‘a policy framework and the legal basis … (for) regulat(ing) the employment of foreign nationals ... while promoting national security and national interests’
• regulate labour brokers, among other things with the aim of preventing ‘worker exploitation … (including employer access to) cheap labour through undocumented foreign nationals’
• ensure the alignment of related sections of the 2002 Immigration Act and 1998 Refugees Act, and
• enable the Minister to set quotas for the sectoral, occupational, and location-specific employment of foreign nationals.

Approved on 14 May 2025, once tabled in Parliament an Extradition Bill will seek to:

• strengthen the existing legal framework for ‘the extradition of persons … accused or convicted of crime to and from South Africa, … foreign states and international entities’
• clarify the role of magistrates in extradition proceedings, and
• enable the ‘provisional arrest (or) surrender of a person sought by an international entity in respect of international crimes such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity’.

The purpose of a Traditional Khoi-San Leadership Bill approved on 12 November 2025 for tabling is to respond to a February 2023 Constitutional Court ruling declaring the 2019 Traditional & Khoi-San Leadership Act invalid ‘due to insufficient public participation during its passage through Parliament’.

The two-year period in which the Act was expected to be remedied has since been extended to May 2027 (IOL). 

Once tabled, a South African Police Service Amendment Bill featured in a statement on Cabinet’s 25 June 2025 meeting will seek to:

• ‘establish a legal framework for policing … (that will) contribute to the effective and efficient combating of crime’, and
• align the principal statute not only to the Constitution but also to a raft of White Papers and other national policies:

Gazetted in December 2025, the Bill’s procedurally required pre-tabling explanatory summary refers to other provisions on which SA Legal Academy reported at the time.

• 15 May 2025 media statement
• 29 May 2025 media statement
• 26 June 2025 media statement
• 13 November 2025 media statement
• 6 December 2025 media statement
• SAPS Amendment Bill’s December 2025 explanatory summary
• SA Legal Academy report 
• February 2023 Constitutional Court ruling
• IOL report on extended deadline 

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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