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End-of-year rush for public comment: List of new draft bills, policies and notices out for comment over the Christmas period

7 December 2012 at 12:09 pm

Every year, government departments publish documents for public comments during December or early January. This practice obviously does not promote participatory environmental governance. Some of these documents are not even on the departments’ own websites. Below is a chronological list of those documents out for public comment of which we are aware – please let us know if you know of any others:

Comments on the Draft 2nd Edition National Water Resource Strategy was technically due approximately yesterday,6 December 2012 (90 days after 7 September 2012), though we have been assured by Department of Water Affairs officials that comments submitted after that date will still be considered (up to a point, presumably).

Yesterday, 6 December 2012, Cabinet announced that it had approved the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Draft Amendment Bill, 2012 on 5 December 2012. The Bill promises to “address shortcomings identified whilst simultaneously streamlining the administrative processes in relation to the regulation of the mining environment management function”. Civil society organisations have been waiting to be consulted on the contents of this Bill for years. We’ll upload a copy as soon as it is available.

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