SONA 2026: POLICY AND LEGISLATIVE CHANGES AHEAD

SONA 2026: POLICY AND LEGISLATIVE CHANGES AHEAD

• 12 February 2026
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

Outlining work already under way and plans afoot for addressing key issues of concern across an array of sectors, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2026 State of the Nation Address (SONA) referred to several with policy and legislative implications. According to the President, this year:

• legislation and regulations on licencing, possessing and trading in firearms and ammunition will be ‘streamlined’
• a ‘Whistleblower Protection Bill’ will tabled Parliament among other things providing for:
  • the criminalisation of ‘retaliation’, as well as
  • ‘psychosocial, legal and financial support to whistle-blowers’
• regulations giving effect to the 2024 Public Procurement Act will be finalised ‘by mid-2026’
• a revised White Paper on Local Government will be finalised, laying the foundations for an ‘effective’, well-functioning local government system
• the draft Business Licensing Bill released in September 2025 for public comment will be revised to ‘makes it easier, not harder, to start and run a small business in South Africa’
• regulations under the 2005 National Credit Act will be amended ‘to make it easier to access credit at a lower cost’
• ‘regulatory changes’ will be made to facilitate improved business uptake of youth employment incentives
• the proportion of the skills development levy returned to employers will be ‘restor(ed) ‘to its original level of 40%’ with the aim of supporting ‘effective workplace-based learning’
• the social relief of distress grant will be redesigned ‘to more effectively support livelihoods, skills development, work opportunities and productive activity’, and
• the Public Service Amendment Bill passed by Parliament in December 2025 (and presumably to be signed into law) will:
  • ‘protect key appointments from political interference’, and
  • ‘ensure that capable and qualified people are appointed to senior positions on the basis of their suitability for the job’.

In addition, the President’s reference to the positive impact of two pieces of proposed new legislation now before Parliament tended to point to an expectation that they will be passed this year. They are:

• the National State Enterprises Bill (tabled in January 2024, as SA Legal Academy reported at the time), and
• the Water Services Amendment Bill (tabled in October 2025, as SA Legal Academy reported at the time).

The SONA also drew attention to:

• a ‘fundamental overhaul of the skills development system’ already under way with the aim of ‘implement(ing) a dual training model that integrates education with practical workplace experience’
• sector education and training authority (SETA) reforms (including a reduction in the number of SETAs) to:
  • ‘improve governance’
  • ‘strengthen industry participation’
  • ‘raise the quality of training’, and
  • ‘better align skills development with the needs of the economy’
• plans to ‘transform the National Skills Fund into a more agile, outcomes-driven instrument that supports unemployed young people … (in) access(ing) workplace experience and employment, building on successful initiatives’, and
• the commencement of work on ‘establish(ing) a professional State Property Company to transform the 88,000 buildings and 5 million hectares of land owned by the state into professionally managed engines of growth and development’.

Please click the links below for more information:

• speech
• Public Procurement Act (not yet in force)
• SA Legal Academy report on draft amendments to regulations under the 2005 National Credit Act
• SA Legal Academy report on Local Government White Paper review   
• SA Legal Academy’s latest report on Water Services Amendment Bill
• SA Legal Academy report on draft Business Licensing Bill

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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