TRADE, INDUSTRY & COMPETITION: DIRECTOR-GENERAL HAZY ON OMNIBUS BILL SPECIFICS

TRADE, INDUSTRY & COMPETITION: DIRECTOR-GENERAL HAZY ON OMNIBUS BILL SPECIFICS

• 24 June 2025
• Trade, Industry & Competition
• SA Legal Academy

During a 17 June 2025 meeting of the National Assembly’s Trade, Industry & Competition Committee, Director-General Simphiwe Hamilton’s input on a yet-to-be-finalised General Laws Amendment/Omnibus Bill did little to reassure stakeholders long calling for economic policy certainty.

When DA representative in the committee, Toby Chance, asked for more details on statutes to be amended by the Bill, Hamilton fudged – which mainstream media reports on the meeting chose to overlook. According to Hamilton:

• the department is considering ‘a whole range of Acts’ for amendment
• not all of them ‘will end up in the Bill’
• each will be assessed with the aim of determining:
  • ‘how best to utilise … (it) for the impact that is required’, and
  • if it is ‘structured in a way that is targeted’, and
• the ‘outcome’ may even be ‘multiple Omnibus Bills addressing specific sectors’.

In that context, the legislation to which Hamilton expressly referred tends to assume greater significance than media reports suggested at the time. According to a video recording of the meeting, they were:

• certain statutes falling directly under the department’s jurisdiction:
  • 1981 Alienation of Land Amendment Act
  • 2003 Liquor Act
  • 2008 Companies Act
  • 2014 Legal Metrology Act, and
  • ‘IP (intellectual property) laws’ (a raft of legislation, including the 1978 Copyright Act and a controversial Copyright Amendment Bill now before the Constitutional Court)
• statutes falling under the jurisdiction of other departments:
  • the ‘Drug Trafficking Act’ (possibly referring to the 1992 Drugs & Drug Trafficking Act, falling under the Department of Justice & Constitutional Development)
  • ‘the commercialisation of cannabis’ (possibly referring to the 2024 Cannabis for Private Purposes Act’, also falling under the Department of Justice & Constitutional Development), and
  • ‘Infrastructure Act’ (possibly referring to the 2014 Infrastructure Development Act, falling under the Department of Public Works & Infrastructure).

As things now stand, the overall thrust of the envisioned general Omnibus Bill will be to ‘improve ease of doing business’ – with the same objective underpinning any sector-specific Bill emerging from the overall legislative assessment process. This could well affect the timeframe reported in the media, which was that an Omnibus Bill could be ‘finalised by the end of the financial year’. In fact, Hamilton expects a decision on the scope of the Bill to be made ‘in the next few months’. Contrary to media reports, this does not tie the department to any timeframe whatsoever.

Regarding intellectual property (IP) legislation under the department’s umbrella, a presentation document circulated at the meeting provides considerably more detail on three proposed amendment Bills yet to be finalised and released in draft form for public comment. With that in mind, one cannot help but wonder which other IP statutes are being considered for amendments to be proposed in the Omnibus Bill. There being at least eight, clarity is needed.

• video recording of meeting
• DTIC presentation document
• Business Day report

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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