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TOWNSHIP ECONOMIES: STANDARD MUNICIPAL BY-LAW GAZETTED
- 07 November 2024
- Local & Provincial Government
- SA Legal Academy
With the aim of facilitating inclusive spatial and economic development, the Department of Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs has gazetted a ‘draft’ standard municipal by-law for township economies. Apparently, individual municipalities are now required to finetune the draft for implementation, although this is not expressly stated. Nevertheless, the draft by-law does tend to read more like a directive.
Against that backdrop, according to the draft each municipal by-law should seek to:
- ‘harmonise the township ecosystem’
- ‘provide norms and standards for the establishment and management of township-based enterprises, both formal and informal’
- ‘raise awareness of applicable laws and regulations affecting township businesses’, and
- ‘support small businesses to grow and participate in mainstream economic activities’.
While the principles underpinning each municipal by-law should include ‘the freedom to participate in business activities’, the draft itself includes a section on foreign-owned enterprises. This:
- allows a municipality – ‘based on its developmental objectives’ – to ‘determine quotas on the proportion of businesses within specific categories … to be owned and operated by foreigners in line with all … relevant legislation’, and
- requires ‘a proportion of the total staff employed in the business’ to be either South African citizens or permanent residents.
In that context, the draft by-law covers:
- designating specific business areas and sites
- restricting or prohibiting trade in certain areas
- registering businesses and issuing permits
- transferable permits
- hygiene and waste removal, and
- enforcement, penalties and appeals.
Each municipality is also required to ‘proactively’:
- provide management, operational and skills development support for ‘small businesses in townships’
- raise awareness of obligations with which compliance is mandatory, and
- facilitate access to infrastructure and markets.
Please click the link below for more information:
- draft standard
Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch
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