1. PURPOSE AND THE BACKGROUND
1.1 The Agricultural Product Standards Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Agricultural Product Standards Act, 1990 (Act No. 119 of 1990) (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"). The Act provides for control over the sale and export of certain agricultural products, control over the sale of certain imported agricultural products, control over other related products, and for matters connected therewith.
1.2. Various deficiencies in the Act which necessitated the amendments were identified. A key deficiency was in the definition of management control system, which covered all management systems pertaining to inspection, audition and production practices and was found to have not been correctly captured in order to fully address what was intended. This revelation was made by the State Law Adviser when the organic regulations were developed which were found to be ultra vires (beyond the scope of the Act).
1.3 The main purpose of the Bill is to:
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt;">provide for a clear and effective application of management control;</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt;">provide for auditing of a product for quality control; and</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">make further provision for matters to be prescribed.</li>
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2. SUMMARY OF BILL
2.2 Clause 1: Amendment of section 1
This clause amends certain definitions, namely "assignee", "auditor", "Director-General", "management control system", "Minister" and "sell", and inserts a new definition for "audit".
2.3 Clause 2: Amendment of section 2
This clause provides that Minister may designate as an assignee, for the purpose of inspection of the commodity for quality control and auditing for management control system, an entity, undertaking, body, institution, association or board who or which, as the case may be, has particular knowledge.
2.4 Clause 3: Amendment of section 3
This clause amends section 3 in order to provide for the procedure in respect of the determination of fee by the assignee.
2.5 Clause 4: Amendment of section 3A
This clause provides for the insertion of the word "audit".
2.6. Clause 5: Amendment of section 15
This clause inserts in section 15 references to "management control system" (subsection (1)(dA)) and "audit" (subsection (1)(g)), as matters in respect of which the Minister may make regulations.
3. BODIES CONSULTED
3.1. The stakeholders that have been consulted thus far are the internal (Directorates Food Safety and Quality Assurance and the Inspection Services). Assignees: Perishable Product Exports Control Board (PPECB), Product Control for Agriculture (PROKON) and South African Meat Industry Company (SAMIC).
3.2 There was public consultation with the following stakeholders relating to the Bill, which was also published for comments:
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt;">Various national departments, provincial and local government units;</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt;">Various commodity associations such Hortgro, CGA, GrainSA, Grain Silo Industry;</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt;">Representative associations/unions such as AgriSA and NAFU;</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt;">Retailers and wholesalers;</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt;">Exporters, transporters, packhouses and agencies;</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt;">Sellers and importers;</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt;">Consumer Unions; and</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;"><span style="line-height: no

To amend the Agricultural Product Standards Act, 1990, so as to insert definitions and substitute others; to provide for auditing of a product for management control systems; to make provision for the setting of tariffs by assignees on a cost-recovery basis; to make further provisions for the Minister to make regulations pertaining to audit and management control systems; and to provide for matters connected therewith.