'Most Notably' (2 February 2026)

This being our first 'Most Notably', we open with a reminder that – as a weekly publication – its purpose is to alert readers to recent (occasionally unusual) developments in South Africa's public policy and legislative space that may either have been overlooked by mainstream media or reported out of context.

'Most Notably' will also clarify any mixed messages coming from national government departments, their entities, and parliamentary structures, including the committees.

South Africa's creative economy

Gazetted shortly before close of business on Friday 23 January 2026 (and therefore largely overlooked by mainstream media until the following week), a Department of Employment & Labour notice once again drew attention to the plight of South African creatives.

During the past 10 years or so, much has been written about the extent to which many of the country's actors, musicians, writers and artists fall foul of exploitative contracts cheating them of royalty payments. A Copyright Amendment Bill and Performers' Protection Amendment Bill among other things intended to address this have been before the Constitutional Court since October 2024 (SAnews), with no end in sight to the process of handing down a ruling on hearings held in May 2025, with their reams of supporting documents.

The Performers' Protection Amendment Bill's revised definition of 'performer' includes a reference to "traditional works as contemplated in the Copyright Act", expressly excluding "extras, ancillary participants or incidental participants". However, the inclusion of traditional works in the 1978 Copyright Act (stemming from a chapter inserted by the yet-to-be-commenced 2013 Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Act) is not yet official.

So, as things now stand, the 1967 Performers' Protection Act definition of 'performer' continues to prevail, namely: "an actor, singer, musician, dancer or other person who acts, sings, delivers, declaims, plays in or otherwise performs literary or artistic works". This is noting that the 2002 Performers' Protection Amendment Act changed the term 'literary and artistic works' to include "expressions of folklore".

Returning to the 23 January 2026 Department of Employment & Labour notice, it marks the next step in a slightly speedier, less complex process begun in December 2019 with the intention of improving the legal status of workers across the creative sector. Apparently responding to issues raised thus far, the measures envisaged would entitle performers in the advertising, artistic and cultural industries to all the "fundamental protections" enshrined in employment law.

By providing "a basis for regulatory and enforcement mechanisms", the provisions expected to emerge from this process could go some way towards "promot(ing) decent work in the creative economy" – possibly by way of "a sectoral determination tailored specifically to the industry's needs". That's according to a departmental media statement issued a few days before the notice (and also missed by mainstream media). Interestingly, it refers not only to a sectoral determination as one outcome of the process, but also to National Minimum Wage Commission investigations into creatives' "wage and employment conditions".

It remains to be seen how the amended Labour Relations Act's sub-section 198B(3) (fixed term contracts with earnings below a certain threshold, affecting eligibility to a range of mandatory employment conditions) is factored into the outcome of this investigation and the broader consultation process. In terms of that sub-section, a fixed term contract for longer than three months requires an employer to demonstrate either that the nature of the work entailed is "of a limited or definite duration" – or that another "justifiable reason" exists for fixing the term of the contract.

As things now stand, the earnings threshold [determined under sub-section 6(3) of the 1997 Basic Conditions of Employment Act, as amended] is R26 1748,45 (two hundred and sixty-one thousand, and seven hundred and forty-eight rand, forty-five cents).

So, if all goes well for performers and the Department of Employment & Labour delivers on expectations undoubtedly raised by their 23 January 2026 notice, anyone whose work falls within the Performers' Protection Act definitions and whose annual income is below the threshold could soon be entitled to a far better deal. In that context, media statements issued by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the South African Federation of Trade Union (Saftu) speak for themselves.

Communications

On Tuesday 27 January 2026 the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) issued a media statement referring to 'proposed amendments' to the 2016 end-user and subscriber service charter regulations when, in fact, the amendments have been finalised and gazetted. They're scheduled to come into force 12 months from the date of publication, which was 23 January 2026 in the Government Gazette (albeit rather late in the day). This will allow service providers sufficient time to make the necessary system changes.

Once operational, according to hopefully more accurate snippets of Icasa's otherwise misleading statement, the amendments will:

• "treat all service bundles ... customers may purchase in the same way, be they voice, SMS or data"

• enable "the automatic, partial rollover of unused portions of service bundles of seven days or longer", and

• "protect the right of consumers to transfer bundles or bundle portions between SIM cards on the same network".

In a 27 January 2026 press release, National Assembly Communications & Digital Technologies Committee chair Khusela Sangoni-Diko described the amendments as a "major overhaul ... directly respond(ing) to longstanding public concerns over the loss of unused prepaid data".

SONA 2026, the 'Nieuwmeester Dome' and South Africa's new parliamentary chambers

On 27 January 2026, Parliament confirmed that this year's State of the Nation Address (SONA) will be delivered from Cape Town's City Hall – which has been the SONA venue ever since a fire in January 2022 destroyed the National Assembly building, along with parts of the Old Assembly wing.

A parliamentary statement the following day invited media representatives to a ceremony on 30 January 2026 at which Public Works & Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson was expected to formally hand over the Nieuwmeester Dome to National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza – for use as a "temporary chamber" pending the completion of work on Parliament's fire-damaged buildings. There being no record of the event online (and in the absence of an official parliamentary statement) – we can only assume the handover was either postponed or cancelled. According to Business Day, "hours before the event, Parliament issued a media advisory confirming that the ceremony would not proceed and (that) a revised date would be communicated". Which would explain why a YouTube clip posted on Parliament's website that day entitled 'Handover of the Dome to NA Speaker, 30 January 2026' was unceremoniously removed.

First used for former President Nelson Mandela's December 2013 funeral in Qunu, Eastern Cape, in December 2024 the disassembled dome (apparently moved into storage in Pretoria after the event) was transported "in eight shipping containers" to Cape Town (SmileFM). Reassembled in the parliamentary precinct's Nieuwmeester parking area across Plein Street from the main administrative block, the dome has since been repurposed to suitably accommodate MPs, the media and visitors during National Assembly sittings – an exercise that has taken two years at considerable expense.

Together, this massive undertaking and refurbishment process have cost the taxpayer approximately R30m. That's according to a press release issued on 3 December 2025 by the Joint Standing Committee on the Financial Management of Parliament, which also notes that the plan has always been to have the dome ready for this year's post-SONA debates – not for the SONA itself. The Business Day article missed that important detail, claiming that, because of the delayed handover, "the Nieuwmeester Dome will not be ready in time for the 2026 State of the Nation Address". That was clearly never the intention.

Parliament's YouTube channel archives show that the dome was used in February, March and early April 2025 not only for National Assembly plenaries but also for joint sittings of both Houses for that year's post-SONA debates. However, Parliamentary Monitoring Group records of meetings of the Joint Standing Committee on the Financial Management of Parliament during that time (and in May 2025) point to widespread dissatisfaction with the dome's toilet facilities, air conditioning and "sound quality" – explaining why it was out of service for the remainder of that year while these and other issues were addressed in what appears to have been a complete overhaul of the facility. Yet, for reasons yet to be revealed, the dome still isn't ready to be formally handed over to Parliament.

Presumably, it will eventually be back in service. But what will happen to that costly piece of "temporary" infrastructure once the new National Assembly building and restored Old Assembly wing are ready for use is anybody's guess. According to a 7 November 2025 parliamentary media statement, the work entailed is expected to be complete by the end of this year.

Interestingly, the statement also refers to the refurbishment of several floors in Parliament's 90 Plein Street office block. Although not directly affected by the 2022 fire, they're being "upgraded" to provide additional offices and committee rooms. This is apparently over and above the building's 4^th and 5^th floor "reconfiguration", which was concluded during 2023 in record time to accommodate the needs of MPs and personnel whose workspaces were destroyed by the fire.

Possibly not widely known, a website dedicated to information on the rebuilding of Parliament provides a wealth of insights into the project – the cost of which, according to a 31 March 2025 parliamentary media statement, is estimated to be in the region of R2.2bn.

Returning to this year's SONA, on 29 January 2026 the Government Communication & Information Service GCIS) issued a media statement on steps being taken to raise awareness about the significance of the annual event, which this year is scheduled for Thursday 12 February at 19:00. The statement includes the names and contact details of all nine provincial GCIS directors involved in a programme events among other things intended to elicit input from ordinary South Africans on "what they would want the President to say".

B-BBEE

Predictably, Trade, Industry & Competition Minister Parks Tau's 29 January 2026 gazetted notices calling for comments on a set of draft amended broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) scorecard statements were met with a flurry of media reports and opinion pieces.

Ours is not to pass judgment on their contents or the proposals themselves. However, we did spot this: each document (along with its related Government Gazette notice) refers to "the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Amendment Act 2003, ... as amended by the B-BBEE Act 46 of 2013". In fact, the 2013 Act amended the 2003 principal statute.

Contrary to some media reports, the transformation fund is still very much a work-in-progress, despite having been somewhat prematurely "launched" in May 2025 by Deputy President Paul Mashatile. At the time, a draft concept document released two months earlier was still open for public comment.

That said, a website dedicated to the proposed new fund tends to suggest that it's already up and running – with offices on Sandton's Grayston Drive. The site includes a document entitled "Phakamani" (isiZulu for "elevate yourself"), although quite where that fits into the process of finalising last year's proposals isn't at all clear. Hopefully, 'Most Notably' will find its way to the desk of someone in the Department of Trade, Industry & Competition with sufficient influence to look into the matter and issue a statement.

Until next Monday ...

Policy Watch SA

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