There has been growing momentum in the energy sector which appears to give credence to governments across the world’s commitment to transition to low-carbon economies. The promise to expand the existing network of Renewable Energy Development (RED) Zones and power corridors incentivizing cleaner energy and including such placement within mining areas, not only to promote self-generation by mines, but also sustainable rehabilitation.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa
South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa said at the opening of the Investing in Africa Mining Indaba recently, that he implores mining entities to invest in sustainable energy resources. This sentiment has been echoed by minister Gwede Mantashe and his Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), the past couple of months.
Securing the various environmental benefits associated with mining and energy developments remains challenging and at times it restricts innovation within these sectors. The industrial sector is responsible for 20% of total greenhouse gas emissions. The current context creates the opportunity to rethink our industries; to build resilience and increase competitiveness while reducing emissions and paving the way towards a carbon-neutral future. The smart solutions that reduce energy consumption, improve productivity, and help integrate renewable energy sources are available today.
The World Bank estimates that production of minerals like graphite, lithium and cobalt will grow by 500% in the next three decades to meet demand for clean energy technologies. It is with this in mind, that the Danfoss Drives office in South Africa has rolled-out a series of thought leadership webinars on the topic of Energy Efficiency in 2020. With the campaign’s overwhelming success with international audiences, the webinar campaign was extended into 2021. This year the webinars will focus on technologies that optimize energy consumption & longevity of drive components in the mining industry.
Variable Speed/Frequency Drives (VFD) are expanding their use as the starter of choice, not only in applications that require speed control but also in applications that require torque control and mechanical ‘soft starting’. The VFD has the capability to perform active load sharing between multiple motors on the same operating system, allowing one VFD to assume the function of a master and others as the follower, so when the master’s torque increases, the follower’s torque limit increases, allowing it to contribute more torque to the load
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
The D-day is here. From today, all businesses in South Africa, including startups which process enormous amount of personal data must obey a new law in order to remain in business. Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president recently announced that the operative provisions of the Protection of Personal Information (PoPI) Act, 2013 will come into force, today, July 1, 2020
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa
Here Are Key Things South African Startups Processing Public Data Must Know About The New Law
What Is Meant By Protection of Personal Information (PoPI)?
The PoPI is now South Africa’s chief privacy law and it stands for Protection of Personal Information. The law aims to give effect to the constitutional right to privacy, by safeguarding personal information when processed by any person, subject to justifiable limitations. It also aims to regulate the manner in which a person’s information may be processed; and to that effect, it prescribes the minimum requirements for the lawful processing of personal information.
What Constitutes Personal Information Under The New Law?
A range of information is considered personal information under the new data law in South Africa Hence, personal information is any information that relates to a human being or company or businesses registered in South Africa, especially as it concerns their:
race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, national, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental health, well-being, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth of the person;
information relating to the education or the medical, financial, criminal or employment history of the person;
any identifying number, symbol, e-mail address, physical address, telephone number, location information, online identifier or other particular assignment to the person;
the biometric information of the person;
the personal opinions, views or preferences of the person;
correspondence sent by the person that is implicitly or explicitly of a private or confidential nature or further correspondence that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence;
the views or opinions of another individual about the person; and
the name of the person if it appears with other personal information relating to the person or if the disclosure of the name itself would reveal information about the person
Which Businesses Does The New Law Apply To?
The law is applicable to all local and foreign companies which process (i.e. whether by way of collecting, using or otherwise handling) personal information in South Africa.
What Are Required Of Businesses Under The New Law?
A lot of things are expected of businesses under the new law.
Under the new law, owners of personal information reserve the right to choose the way information about them are used by any business or organisation; and their consent must be sought before such use. They must also been informed that their personal information has been acquired by any organisation. They also have the right to request the destruction or deletion of their personal information. They can also reasonably refuse to grant permission for use of their personal information. They can also refuse to allow their information, such as their email addresses, etc., to be used for direct marketing by means of unsolicited electronic communications. The owners of the information may withdraw this consent at any time, and where such happens the information shall continue to remain lawful where it has fulfilled the relevant provisions of the law.
However, such protection does not extend to information used only solely for journalistic, literary or artistic expression, provided that such information was used to exercise the right to freedom of expression, or where use is permitted by law, or the processing of such information is in public interest.
The information so processed shall not be retained for longer time than reasonable unless there is consent for continued retention; the retention has been permitted by the parties under their contracts; or permitted by law; or retained for historical, statistical or research purposes.
No person in South Africa may transfer another person’s personal information to a third party who is in a foreign country without their consent, unless a contract between affected persons permits so or the transfer is for the benefit of the owner of the information, and provided the law applicable in the foreigner’s country guarantees similar protection for personal information use in South Africa.
With this new data law, South Africa will be joining other countries in the world in their quests to regulate large volumes of personal data now available in public spaces.
Who Is The Regulator Under The New Law And When Will They Start Compliance Monitoring?
Under the new law, the regulator is the Information Regulator and it has jurisdiction throughout South Africa. The Regulator will also monitor and enforce compliance with the law. It also handles complaints about alleged violations of the protection of personal information by businesses.
Anybody using any personal information in South Africa must also obtain approval from the Regulator prior to such use where it processes the information for the purposes of credit reporting; transfers or link special personal information to any person; processes information on criminal behaviour or on unlawful or objectionable conduct on behalf of third parties;
By the terms of the law, businesses have 12 months from July 1, 2020 to become compliant. The implication of this is that there will be no sanctions for non-compliance until July 1, 2021. This may however be extended by South Africa’s Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, on request or of his or her own accord and after consultation with the Regulator, which period may not exceed three years
What Are The Penalties For Non-Compliance?
The fines and penalties vary depending on the offence, with a maximum of 10 years in prison or a R10 million ($577k) fine.
Does The New Law Provide Any Benefit To Businesses?
Definitely! Apart from protecting consumers, the new law will help businesses value the data in their possession, since the cost of data acquisition will most likely increase. It will therefore provide businesses with the opportunity to analyse and have more control over the data handled within their organisations and to better understand their purposes.
For more information about the new law, download it here. (PDF)
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions. He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance. He is also an award-winning writer.
The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa has asked fellow African countries for forgiveness over the xenophobic attacks that took place in his country in the last two weeks. President Ramaphosa who spoke on this over the weekend during the state funeral for late President Robert Mugabe in Harare, Zimbabwe is said to have engaged in people diplomacy to put the matter to rest. Also there has been series of peaceful protests by South Africans across different cities against xenophobia in their country.
Xenophobic attack on Africans in South Africa
The South African government has sent out high-ranking emissaries to different African countries to assure them that their citizens are welcome in his country, despite the wave of xenophobic violence earlier this month. The mission, led by former Minister Jeff Radeba, left South Africa over the weekend scheduled to visit Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, the president announced on today. Our sources in Abuja say that the South African delegation is already in Nigeria. In an unprecedented move, hundreds of migrants from neighbouring Zimbabwe and Mozambique had fled from South Africa recently while Nigeria air lifted 600 of its citizens back home after they were targeted in the violence.
It could be recalled that President Cyril Ramaphosa had his speech at the state funeral of late President Robert Mugabe severally disrupted with boos and jeers from the crowd over the xenophobic attacks on African nationals in South Africa. President Ramaphosa punctuated his speech with an apology saying “I stand before you as a fellow African to express my regret and apologise for what has happened in our country”, a gesture the crowd refused to accept. His comments were met with cheers and blasts of air horns from the crowd.
The South African business leaders earlier warned that the fallout from the attacks has had a negative impact on businesses and the country’s statistics agency said that business confidence is at its lowest in the last 30 years, a sign that the economy is feeling the heat of the negative publicity. South Africa, the continent’s second largest economy, is a major destination for other African migrants. But they are often targeted by some locals who blame them for a lack of jobs.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
Businesses in South Africa would now have to pay new taxes, thanks to the Carbon Tax and the Customs and Excise Amendment laws which will both come into effect from 1 June 2019.
Key Points About The New Laws
Both laws will work together in dealing with administrative issues surrounding the implementation of the new carbon tax.
‘Carbon tax’’ according to the new law is a tax on the carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions.
A person is a taxpayer under the Act and is therefore liable to pay an amount of carbon tax calculated in respect of a tax period if that person conducts an activity in South Africa resulting in greenhouse gas emissions above the limit allowed under the Act.
Cyril Ramaphosa, South African President
Under the new law, taxpayers are expected to pay R120 ($8.3) per ton of carbon dioxide according to the amount of greenhouse gas emitted by the taxpayer. This rate would be increased from R120 to any amount depending on the prevailing market inflation in South Africa, plus an additional 2% for the tax period between now and December 31 2022. After 31st December 2022, the carbon tax rate would depend on the prevailing market inflation alone.
Those given some allowance from taxation under the new law include industrial taxpayers; taxpayers engaged in activities that cannot reasonably prevent the emission of carbon dioxide; taxpayers who are exposed to carbon dioxide emission by reason of their exports or imports activities; taxpayers that have implemented measures to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in respect of a tax period (5% tax allowance); taxpayers that operated within a city limit for carbon dioxide emission even though they emitted the gas (5% allowance).
All taxes are to pay in accordance with South Africa’s yearly environmental levy prescribed under the Customs and Excise Act, 1964 (now 2019 as amended), for every tax period. Hence, the essence of the Customs and Excise Amendment Act is that a new levy known as the environmental levy (which is the carbon tax) is now to be charged by the South African customs on goods, whether imported into or manufactured in South Africa.
Who Is Going To Feel The Impact of the New Carbon Tax?
The new tax will also affect any substantial drop in petrol price, with South Africa’s Central Energy Fund’s data for mid-May, 2019 showing a 5 to 7 cents per litre increase (including the tax) in the price for the month of June for these both petroleum and diesel products.
The contributions of economic sectors to global greenhouse gas emissions. Credit- From the FAO report‘Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Agriculture, Forestry and other Land Use’ 2016.
Longer Impact
South Africans should also expect ‘trickle-down taxing’ on emissions that escape by accident in the petrol and diesel value chains from oil production, transport and venting systems which will likely be passed down to consumers. The heavily hit would be industries that rely heavily on carbon dioxide.
Global carbon dioxide emissions by sector from data from FAO 2017. Credit: Our World in Data
Enforcement?
Expect the South African Tax Commissioner to go all out to implement the new Carbon Tax law. This is because, under the new law, he must annually submit to South Africa’s Energy Minister a report showing the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions reported in respect of which taxpayers are liable for the carbon tax and the amount collected as a carbon tax.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organisations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.
