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LegalB Website Help Centre

SOUTH AFRICAN LEGISLATION 

 

INDEX TO HELP TOPICS AND FAQ

 

Please click on the help topic you find most relevant in order to reach help on that topic. If you cannot find the help you need, you are welcome to send an email asking for assistance.

   1. HELP IN GENERAL [HERE]
   2. INFORMATION ON THE LEGALB WEBSITE - SITE MAP [HERE]
   3. INTEGRATED USE OF THE LEGALB WEBSITE  - USER GUIDE [HERE]
   4. OVERVIEWS OF LEGISLATION [HERE]
   5. LEGISLATION TEXTS [HERE]
   6. GAZETTE SERVICES [HERE]

   7. DOCUMENT REFERENCING AND SOURCES [HERE]
   8. ENGROSSING OF LEGISLATION [HERE]
   9. SUBORDINATE LEGISLATION [HERE]
  10. COMMENTARIES ON LEGISLATION [HERE]
  11. USE OF WORDS, CONTRACTIONS AND SYMBOLS [HERE]
  12. POTENTIAL TRANSGRESSORS [HERE]
  13. SEARCHING FOR INFORMATION [HERE]
  14. TESTING FOR TRANSGRESSIONS AND STAQ QUESTIONNAIRES [HERE]
  15. EXPERTWEB [HERE]

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1. HELP IN GENERAL

The LegalB website is structured to ensure intuitive use of the website generates information you are looking for. You are, of course, very welcome to email if you need further assistance.

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2. INFORMATION ON THE LEGALB WEBSITE - THE SITE MAP

The LegalB site map is located HERE. It should prove useful to finding your way around the information, products and services on the LegalB website.  You are very welcome to email should you need further assistance.

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3. CLIENT USE OF THE LEGALB WEBSITE

Please email if you are interested in any training, seminars or workshops on how to:

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4. OVERVIEWS OF LEGISLATION

What are Overviews?

Overviews on LEGALB provide you with summary information about particular Acts. Each Overview contains:

LegalB Timelines provide you with summary information about particular Acts. Each Timeline contains:


Overviews and Timelines for South African national and provincial Acts are available on the database on the LegalB website, 1994 on. You can see an Overview HERE.


Why is some text in the Overview gray?

Plain grey text in square brackets [thus] is text inserted in order to provide you with additional information which you may find useful. For example, if a title to a section of an Act is amended, a note in grey text in square brackets in the Overview will be inserted, giving the section's previous title. 

What do the terms "in force" and "commenced" mean?

The term "in force" is always used to indicate that particular legislation has the force of law and is enforceable, and the term "commenced" refers to the date on which the relevant legislation or part thereof was first in force. However, the terms "in force" and "commenced", "in operation", "deemed in force" and "of force and effect" are not generally well defined in relation to legislation and they often appear to be used interchangeably or differently in difference documents or by different people, perhaps because their common English meaning allows that flexible use. 

Why an index on an Overview differs from the index in an Act?

It is possible that you are looking at the index of an Act which is outdated because it has since been amended. Alternatively, if you are looking at the index of an amended Act, it is possible that the index to the Act was not amended in line with amendments to its titles. It is also possible that the Act was published with errors in its index, or even that there is an error on the LegalB website in creating or updating the index to the Act. If this is the case, please email information about any such instances.



Are Overviews available for all legislation?

No. Overviews on the LegalB website are available for national and provincial legislation that has been promulgated, 1994 on. There are also numerous Overviews for pieces of legislation published prior to 1994.

Please note that national legislation Overviews are updated as and when new legislation is published, but provincial legislation Overviews are less frequently updated. Also note that local government legislation and subordinate legislation Overviews are a work in progress, and the intention is to make these available online as and when possible.

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5. LEGISLATION TEXTS

What legislation is provided on the LegalB website online, free of charge?

For research purposes, the LegalB website provides links to official versions of unamended national South African Acts, 1994 on. It also provides various other texts online free of charge.

Does the LegalB website provide any amended legislation free of charge?

No. The process of engrossing legislation requires the application of skills and knowledge which requires expertises and is time consuming. Therefore, amended legislation is available on by arrangement only.

Charge for unamended legislation prior to 1994?

There are particular costs related to providing old order legislation which cannot therefore be offered on a free to access basis: For example, legislation prior to 1994 is sometimes difficult to obtain and its relationship to various past legal entities such as the old provinces and bantustan states as well as its current status has to be researched. 

What is the grey text that follows each section in the text of an Act?

The grey text in square brackets found below each section of an Act contains commencement, amendment and repeal dates relevant to that section, along with information identifying amending or repealing legislation. 

From this information, you can check what version of the section you are looking at.  A shorter version of this grey text is also provided below the text which appears under the relevant label within the section itself, and this therefore this grey text also allows you to check what version of a subsection you are looking at.

This information is sorted, unlike the Overview timeline chronological sorting, in terms of section and subsection order, under which it is then sorted chronologically. 

Why do amended texts sometimes contain grey bolded or underlined text in square brackets?

Such underlined grey text in square brackets is text that is inserted into an Act by an amending Act which did not mark the text as an insertion. Such bolded grey text in square brackets is text that is omitted from an Act by an amending Act which did not mark the text as an omission.

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6. GAZETTE SERVICES

How do I access or obtain an individual item in the Gazette?

Government Gazettes are available through their printer, the Government Printing Works, which is part of the Government Communications and Information Services, a unit under the Department of Home Affairs, except for the Western Cape Province Gazettes and Free State Province Gazettes. If you need assistance in obtaining particular Gazettes please email for assistance. 


What are Annotated Gazette Indexes?

The LegalB website classifies, summaries and audits individual Gazette item on a weekly basis to assist those accessing the website to obtain information they find relevant 

 

How to check if an item has been published in the Gazette?

The LegalB website contains Annotated Gazette Indexes which list items published under particular legislation. 


7. DOCUMENT REFERENCING AND SOURCES

Documents are often headed with the word PRIMARY DOCREF followed by a long string of numbers.  What do these mean?

The term "DOCREF" means "Document Reference" and the string of numbers and letters indicates the document source, year, number and section of the document, its date of publication, the gazette number it was published in, the notice number and the regulation number. 

For example, the DOCREF string "DOCREF: mp_1995_005_000_19950922_00086_0146_0000" indicates that the source of the document is the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature and that it is Act No. 5 of 1995, published on 1995/09/22, in Gazette No. 86, in Notice No. 146.

Note however, that where a document is made in terms of powers derived from another primary document, then the DOCREF string of the primary document is provided in the first of the two "tramlines" that appear at the top of the subordinate document under the title "PRIMARY DOCREF", and the DOCREF string of the subordinate document is provided in the second of the two "tramlines" under the title "DOCREF".  

If you are not clear what is meant by "tramlines", have a look at the top of this document: its tramlines are the two orange cells containing text at the top of the document, between which the LegalB Logo and a Page title appear. 

 

Can I rely on the information in the DOCREF string as a source reference?

The DOCREF contains information as to the publication details for purposes of research only, and the accuracy of that information should always be checked against original documentation.

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8. ENGROSSING OF LEGISLATION

What is engrossing a document mean, and how does it differ from amending a document?

The process of amending a document is the process of deciding what should be changed in a document.  The process of engrossing a document, on the other hand, never ever includes the process of deciding what should be amended. It is purely the process of following detailed instructions to omit from or insert into a document particular words, punctuation, headings, fonts, or other elements. The engrossing process is built on the principle that the engrosser should be put in the position of having to decide whether or not an element should be omitted or included in the document being engrossed. 

In order to properly engross a document, the engrossing process must be controlled by very strict rules, the engrossing instructions must be very clear, and the engrosser must have a system to indicate unmarked omissions and unmarked insertions and a system to provide commentary for those instances where strict engrossing rules cannot be applied and where engrossing instructions are unclear. 

Engrossed documents on the LegalB website are a product of specific engrossment principles, rules and methodology developed by Rita Felgate which are reflected in specific engrossment marks for unmarked omissions and unmarked insertions, and is allied to commentaries created by Rita Felgate which comment on engrossment difficulties arising from engrossing instructions. 


What are unmarked omissions and unmarked insertions?

An amending Act typically shows text of the Act to be amended, and marks some of that text to be omitted, and/or inserted.  The marks an Act uses to indicate omissions and insertions are usually explained at the beginning of the amending Act.

However, sometimes amending Acts do  not accurately show the text of the Act to be amended. Sometimes, the amending Act will mark a word as a word to be inserted but the word is already contained in the Act to be amended.  Or the amending Act will mark a word as a word to be omitted but the text of the Act to be amended does not contain that word.

Text such as this is referred to as unmarked omissions and unmarked insertions.  Where the amending Act contains such errors, the amended Act reflects a unique system to mark the affected text as either an unmarked insertion or an unmarked omission.

 

Why does amended legislation on the LegalB website sometimes differs from the amended legislation supplied by amended legislation provided by others? Surely the letter of the law should be the same?

There are a number of possible reasons for this.

Firstly, a primary principle of engrossing is that as soon as an engrosser begins second guessing the intention of the legislature because he or she thinks the engrossing instruction is wrong, it is the engrosser who is making the law, and this can never be correct. Therefore in created versions of amended legislation, engrossing instructions in amending legislation have to be followed exactly as given. This principle has not been adopted by other suppliers of engrossed legislation, who appear to allow their engrossers (who are called "editors") the leeway of second guessing the intention of the legislature where engrossing instructions are unclear, ambiguous or obviously in error. In the result, the text of amended legislation as reflected on the LegalB website will fairly frequently and perhaps substantively differ from the text of legislation amended by other suppliers of amended legislative texts.

Another possible reason for differences between the engrossed text on the LegalB website and that text as amended by other, is that engrossed text on the LegalB website includes marks that indicate unmarked omissions and unmarked insertions (see above for definitions of these), whereas the text amended by others of amended legislation does not include such marks. The engrossed text on the LegalB website does not reflect second guesses as to the intention of the legislature where engrossing instructions are not clear, and such text is marked with special additional engrossing marks to indicate unmarked omission and unmarked insertion, by placing such text as grey text within square brackets that is bolded in the case of an unmarked omission and that is underlined in the case of an unmarked insertion. Therefore, engrossed text of amended legislation on the LegalB website will frequently differ quite significantly from texts amended by others' amended legislation, who do not use such marks, and who make decisions as to how to integrate unmarked omissions and unmarked insertions into the plain text of the amended legislation.

Further, where engrossing instructions are impossible to carry out the engrossing instructions of an amending text, or where the engrossing instructions are ambiguous, Rita Felgate provides a commentary recounting engrossing difficulties and decisions taken in relation to these and reasons for those reasons. To refers the reader to such difficulties and commentary on the same, a double asterisk in grey (**) in the amending Act and in the amended Act is provided.  Other suppliers of amended legislation do not provide commentaries associated with engrossment difficulties. Readers of documentation on the LegalB website are alerted to engrossment difficulties that were encountered in creating amended versions of legislation, by a double asterisk ** and the existence of a commentary on those difficulties..

Please email if you suspect or find errors on documentation on the LegalB website. 

Can you explain the engrossing marks you use?

For a full explanation of the engrossing mark system used to create amended versions of legislation on the LegalB website, please email.  

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9. SUBORDINATE TEXTS

What are "subordinate texts"?

Where text is made in terms of powers contained in legislation, then that text is referred to on the LegalB website as "subordinate text".  Typical examples of subordinate texts are regulations and notices that are published in the national Government Gazette or relevant Provincial Gazettes, and which usually state the powers in terms of which they were made.

Where can I get a list of subordinate text for a section of an Act?

The LegalB website contains links to copies of subordinate texts that relate specifically to either commencement dates of legislation, the nomination and appointment of persons to entities set up in terms of an Act, and to regulations made in terms of an Act.

Where such subordinate texts are issued in terms of a power contained in an Act, these texts are listed in a table that can be reached by clicking on the "subordinate text" link at the top of all documents to do with that Act.  The table of subordinate texts lists, under the section of the Act in terms of which the subordinate text was made, the document reference ("DOCREF") of each subordinate text on the LegalB database. To access the text of a subordinate text, click on the link provided on the table to that subordinate text. 

Note that subordinate text lists and subordinate texts are available on subscription only.  Please email if you want more information about these. 

How can I find the publication details of subordinate text?

On the LegalB website, subordinate texts are filed, linked and referred to by their document reference ("DOCREF") in the format "YYYY_NNN_SSS_DATE OF PUBLICATION_GAZETTE NO_VOL_NOTICE_REGULATION GAZETTE NO", where the "YYYY_NNN_SSS" portion of this string refers to the year, number and section of the Act in terms of which the subordinate text was made. Therefore, for example, the DOCREF string "1988_057_024_19930813_15061_0000_1540_0000" informs you that the subordinate text was made in terms of s24 of the Trust Property Control Act, No. 57 of 1988 and was published on 1993/08/13 in Government Gazette No. 15061, in notice number 1540.  You can obtain publication details of a subordinate text that is listed on the Subordinate Texts List for an Act by hovering your mouse over the link to that subordinate text and noting the information in the DOCREF.  

Note however that you need to request and be provided with access to an Act's subordinate text in order to access the Subordinate Texts List for an Act. Please email if you are interested in the Subordinate Texts List for an Act.

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How do I know which powers a person or body was acting in terms of in issuing subordinate text?

Usually you will be able to see under which section subordinate text was made by looking at the heading or the text of the subordinate text, because that is where the section of the Act in terms of which the person issuing the subordinate text acted in making and issue the subordinate text, is identified.  If you hover your mouse over a link to subordinate text on the LegalB site, you will be able to determine the empowering section because that information is contained in the document reference ("DOCREF") string.   


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10. COMMENTARIES ON LEGISLATION

What do Commentaries on the LegalB website focus on?

LegalB Commentaries focus on difficulties relating to firstly, procedural difficulties related to commencement provisions, powers, and engrossment issues and secondly, substantive issues revealed through a process of content analysis of the text of the legislation, and during the process of STAQ development. 

For example, if the President has issued a proclamation commencing an Act in terms of a section which does not grant him powers of commencement, a commentary that the Act will be created that the Act may have been improperly commenced. If persons are appointed to an entity such as a board, but a Gazette notice calling for persons to be nominated for appointment to that entity before their appointment then that would also be cause foe a Commentary to be created to that effect, which will be uploaded to the LegalB website.  If engrossment instructions in an amending Act are so unclear that they cannot be carried out, ditto, a Commentary would be created to that effect. If an amendment to an Act changes particular words in relation to some sections of the Act and not others, and failure to make the change in all sections results in substantive contradictions in the Act, again ditto, a Commentary on that issue will probably have been created..

LegalB Commentaries provide a unique perspective on legislation and they are therefore likely to contain information which is not available elsewhere. They are designed by a legal practitioner Rita Felgate, for other legal practitioners, but also service the needs of researchers and experts in the field to which the legislation relate. The Commentaries are frequently amended and updated as and when new and amending legislation is promulgated and as and when new information of administrative actions taken in terms of legislation is published. Should you have any queries, please email.

What can LegalB Commentaries by used for?

LegalB Commentaries are ideally suited to those who want to establish whether or not a particular piece of legislation is of any force and effect, and what version was of force and effect, on which a particular dates. They are also useful to those who need to establish whether or not an entity established in terms of legislation has any force and effect. They are also ideally suited to anyone interested in discovering contradictions, inconsistencies and anomalies which may affect the interpretation of that legislation. 

LegalB Commentaries are therefore ideally used as a tool of first and last resort by anyone attempting to enforce or escape the enforcement of a particular piece of legislation, within the context of a particular set of facts.

LegalB Commentaries often contain links to Commentary on a different piece of legislation. How do such cross-referenced Commentaries work?

Often LegalB Commentary relates to more than one piece of legislation. Where this is the case, the LegalB website has a cross-commentary reference system to all Acts identify as affected by the topic of commentary.

For example, where an amending Act represents text of an amended Act incorrectly, the primary Commentary would be on the amending Act, but a cross-Commentary link to the affected amended Act is also provided.

If you click on the cross-reference Commentary link, you would be able to access the Commentary on the amending Act, and check how issues in that amending Act may cause issues in the Act you are interested in.

Commentaries seem to use very technical language and shorthand descriptions of Acts and sections.  How can I understand these?

In writing a Commentary, it will often have to refer to a number of specific sections and subsections of legislation. To write the references to the various pieces of legislation would result in voluminous text, with the result that the reader will not see the wood for the trees.  Therefore, use has been made of a document reference string ("DOCREF") to represent the document's year, number and section, in the format "YYYY_NNN_SSS" and sometimes to that is added a date string in the format "YYYYMMDD" to represent the year, month and day of publication of the document.

Although this document reference system may seem complex to at first, you should find it intuitively easy to use once you know how document reference strings are constructed, and they allow you to see a glance information which would, if written out at length, take you minutes to read and tease apart.

The following are examples of document reference string:

"Act 1996_108_056(3)" is a reference to "subsection 3 of section 56 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act, No. 108 of 1996".

"Act 1994_015_001, 003 and 004" is a reference to "sections 1, 3 and 4 of the Maritime Zones Act, No. 15 of 1994".

"Proclamation 1994_015_013_19951131" is a reference to "a proclamation issued on 1995/11/31 in terms of powers contained in section 13 of Act No. 15 of 1994".


Note that in Legalb Commentaries, references to a document are references to the document in its particular version relevant to the Commentary. Therefore the reference string for Act 1 of 1999 as unamended will be 1999_001_000_19990302 (where the 19990302 is the date YYYY_MM_DD on which it was published), while the reference string to Act 1 of 1999 as amended by Act 25 of 2004 will be 1999_001_000_20040110 (where 20040110 is the date YYYYMMDD on which amending Act 25 of 2004 was published) .

Where a document is amended or repealed, the text "(as amended by ...)" or "(as repealed by...)" is often but not always  inserted at the end of the document reference string to assist in identifying what amending Act created the amended version of the Act.  For instance, the document reference string that refers to "section 2 of the Land Administration Act, No. 2 of 1995 as amended by the Schedule to section 35 of the Public Service Laws Amendment Act, No. 47 of 1997" would be "Act 1995_002_002_19971003 (as amended by Act 35 of Act 47 of 1997)". The document reference string used in Commentaries is part of the more comprehensive LegalB Document Reference system which is described more fully HERE.

What do the various contractions used in the Commentaries mean?

The use of contractions has been reduced as much as possible.  One which is fairly frequently used is "GG", which is a reference to the national Government Gazette. Another is "PG" which refers to "Provincial Gazette".

How do I know if a Commentary is available for a particular piece of legislation?

It is always useful to know whether a LegalB Commentary is available for a particular piece of legislation because, if it is, procedural or substantive issues may exist in relation to at least one or other section of the legislation, which may be relevant to your interests.

A quick way to find out whether a Commentary for a particular piece of legislation exists is to hover your mouse over the "Commentary" link at the head documentation on that legislation, and to check whether the link is to a DOCREF substring in the format "YYYY-NNN-000-YYYYMMDD...".  If it is present, an online Commentary is available. If not, you are welcome email and ask after a Commentary on the legislation.

How do I access a the Commentary on a particular piece of legislation?

Please note that LegalB Commentaries are available by arrangement and only then, after you have also registered on the LegalB website as a user in order to access that Commentary.

 
To access a Commentary as a user, click on the "Commentary" link at the head of documentation for relevant the piece of legislation. You will be asked to enter your user name and password, and once you have done this, the Commentary will be loaded to your screen. 

If clicking on the Commentary link results in a page loading which informs you that the document is not available, or if it results in an error message, please email for assistance. 


How much does it cost to subscribe to a Commentary on a single Act?

Commentaries contain analysis of compliance with basic principles of the Rule of Law and can be obtained on request. Please email for further information.

How extensively is the LegalB Commentary database?

Commentaries on legislation on the LegalB website have been uploaded for hundreds of pieces of legislation, and the Commentary database is an ever growing one.

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11. USE OF WORDS, CONTRACTIONS AND SYMBOLS

What does "PG", and "GG", refer to?

PG refers to "Provincial Gazette".  Each of the nine provinces of South Africa has a Provincial Gazette, and the PG referred to would be the one for the relevant province.  GG refers to the national "Government Gazette", which is the Gazette used for national publications, rather than provincial publications. 

What do the words "engrossing" and "engrossed" mean?

"Engrossing" is a proprietary term originated by Rita Felgate to refer to the process of producing a final document by incorporating amendments by following instructions to omit and insert textual elements. In relation to legislation, engrossing is the process of producing a final amended version of a piece of legislation by closely following engrossing instructions in amending legislation, thus creating a new version of the legislation amended. More thorough information on engrossing is available HERE.

What do you mean by a "version" of an Act? 

The unamended Act, as first published, is the first version of an Act. Each time another Act amends and/or partially repeals one or more elements of the Act, a new version of the Act is created through a process of engrossing (see the definition of "engrossing" above). The version of an Act is identified in documentation on an Act in tramlines cell that appears just below the title of the Act.  A list of the different versions of an Act, and links to the text of each of these versions, can be found at the end of the Overview of an Act. In the text of a piece of legislation, the actual version of an Act, its version is identified in the DOCREF string in the grey text that appears below the text of its sections, and below the headings and sections where these have changed.

What does "[sic]" mean.. I've seen it in the text of documents, usually in grey and in square brackets?

"Sic" means the text "appears thus" in the original.  The use of "sic" is a common way of letting readers know that although it looks like a mistake has been made, the original text of the document contains that mistake. If an Act contains numerous spelling, punctuation, indent and garbled text a Commentary on that would be created. In one such instance it was found that a draft Bill had assented to and published, instead of the final version of the Bill as passed by the Legislature. 


I see you don't use italics for foreign words and concepts... is there a reason for that?

No, the text style used for texts on the LegalB website is minimalistic. Therefore we don't use italics even if they are in the original publication of legislation, unless there is a reason to do so. Documentation reflects only two text colours (black and grey), only three text formats (plain, bold and underlined) and only one font size, so that documents are as simple and uncluttered as possible. Therefore, unless there is good reason to use an additional text format such as italics, it will not in principle be used.   

Therefore, please check the original texts of legislation if you want to see where italics an other stylistic effects are used.

What is a "commencement date" of an Act, and how do you work it out?

The commencement date of an Act is the date on which the Act or part of the Act first had the force of law. Where different sections of an Act have the force of law on different dates, there is no one commencement date that applies to the Act as a whole, because the different commencement dates apply to relevant sections of the Act, rather than to the Act as a whole. 

Quite stringent rules have to be applied to work out what the commencement date of an Act is.  At different stages of South Africa's history, different rules have had to be applied to work out what this date is.  Currently, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act, No. 108 of 1996, contains provisions as to the commencement of Acts. It provides for instance that the default commencement date of an Act is the date of its publication in the Gazette. 

However, commencement dates are difficult to determine with complete certainty because Gazettes are sometimes made available before the date reflected on the Gazette as its publication date, or are sometimes embargoed until after that date and no reliable records of such early availability or late availability of Gazettes are kept, even although in such cases the commencement date may not be taken to be the date reflected on the Gazette as its publication date. Therefore please keep it in mind that where a commencement date of an Act is reflected as the date of its publication in the Gazette, there is a chance that the Gazette in which the Act was published was released early, embargoed or even backdated, and that the commencement date of the Act therefore may not be the date reflected on the Gazette as its publication date.  

Where an Act provides that one or other of its sections come into force on a date different to the date of publication of the Act in the Gazette, or that the date of commencement be fixed by the President or another official, then commencement dates would apply to particular sections rather than the Act as a whole. Note too that an amending Act's commencement dates are taken to be the commencement dates of the Act it may amend.

What is the "timeline" of an Act, and how can I use the timeline information that you provide?

The "timeline" or an Act refers to the period of its existence, from the date assented to by the President to the date of its repeal. To this timeline, Legalb documentation adds the date of commencement of each amendments to the Act. Where relevant, the timeline also includes the date on which a Constitutional Court of South Africa order of invalidity commences. This timeline information is provided in table format in the Overview to an Act, and below and in each section of the text of an Act. 

Timeline dates allows you to identify which version of a section of an Act was in force on any particular date. Timeline information also allows you to find the start and end dates during which any version of any section of an Act was in force. 

What is the significance of the grey text in some of  your documentation?

Grey text enclosed in square brackets [like this] indicates that the text is inserted by LegalB, and it not a part of the text of the document itself. Such grey text contains information about the document, its text and its history. Light grey is used for this text so as to not detract from the visibility of the main text in the document. If however, you find it difficult to read the grey text, block the text by dragging your mouse over it with the left button down, and you should find it easy to see.

What does "0000/00/00" mean? 

The YYYY/MM/DD string is used to indicate the year, month and date of publication.  Zeros within this string indicate that the relevant information is either not available or not relevant.  For example, the string "0000/00/00" refers to a date that is not available. The string "1994/00/00" refers to the year 1994, while the string 1994/01/01 refers to the first of January, 1994.  This string is reduced to 00000000 where used in a file name, and you will see this format if your hover your cursor over a hyper link, or if you look at the document references at the head of documents.  In this string, 19940300 would refer to March 1994.

What does a string like "1995_003_001" mean?

 

In naming and referring to documents, the format YYYY_NNN_SSS is used to indicate an Act by its year, number and sections. Zeros within this string indicate that the relevant information is either not available or not relevant.  Therefore, the string "1998_016_000" is a reference to Act 16 of 1998, and the string "1998_016_001" and "1998_016_003_003(1)" are references to section 1 and 3(1) of that Act respectively.  

Such a document reference strings may be prefixed with a code to indicate the Legislature which originated that legislation, unless the originating legislature is the national legislature. For example, the string "mp_1998_016_003(1) is a reference to section 3(1) of Act No. 16 of 1998 of the Mpumalanga Province. However, the string "1998_016_003(1) is a reference to section 3(1) of the national Act No. 15 of 1998. 

Note also that the ISO country code would be used as as a preface code for legislation from other jurisdictions.

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12. POTENTIAL TRANSGRESSOR LISTS
 
What do you mean by "potential transgressor"

Potential transgressors are persons or entities who have the potential to transgress a particular piece of legislation.  For example, if an Act provides that persons over 18 can drive a vehicle if they have a licence, then the potential transgressors of the Act are persons over 18. 

What are potential transgressor lists used for?

There are many uses for a potential transgressor list.  A potential transgressor list that includes someone such as yourself will put you on notice that it is possible for you to transgress the legislation to which the list relates. Companies can use potential transgressor lists to assist them to draw up a legal register of Acts to which they must comply or in respect of which they may be in transgression. If you would like further information on potential transgressor lists and how you could use them please email.

Do you compile potential transgressor lists for any legislation?

Yes. The LegalB website contains a large database of potential transgressor lists, particularly in the environmental compliance field, and potential transgressor lists are drawn up as and when required in respect of any national or provincial legislation, or any local government by-laws

 

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13. SEARCHING FOR INFORMATION ON THE LEGALB WEBSITE

Is there a search button on the website?

Yes there is.  You will find it either at the top right of each page, or, if you are on a page of legislation, you will find a search button just below the top of the two gold "tramlines" on the page on which the legislation appears.

Can I use boolean expressions in search mode?

Yes. The search function is greatly enhanced by using boolean expressions.

Why can I not find a piece of legislation when I search for it?

Either the information is not online, or it is behind a firewall, or your search string was not correctly entered.  Please email for assistance.

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14. TRANSGRESSION TESTING AND STAQ TRANSGRESSION QUESTIONNAIRES

What are STAQs?

LegalB's Statutory Transgression Analysis Questionnaires (STAQs) are online tools which are used to identify factual circumstances which may amount to transgressions of legislation.  They are available on subscription only. If you are interested in subscribing to a particular STAQ, please email.

I cannot access a STAQ to which I have subscribed. What can I do?

When you subscribe to a STAQ we send you a URL which you must enter into the address bar of your browser. After entering this URL in the address bar of the browser, you will be prompted to enter the user name and password under which your subscribed to the STAQ, and then you should be able to access the STAQ. 

If you receive an error message at this stage, please copy and past the message to an email and email so that the  problem can be resolves. 

I have questions about STAQs for which I cannot find answers on this page. Where should I go for more information?

STAQs are powerful tools, to assist you to maximise your use of all the powerful features offered by STAQs, and  you should work through the STAQ User Guide before undertaking your first STAQ. You are welcome to email should you need further assistance before attempting a STAQ, or whilst undertaking a STAQ. 

Can I use STAQs to monitor compliance of a number of people and entities, at the same time?

STAQs are useful tools to concurrently monitor compliance by a great number of potential transgressors. If you would like to know more about bulk compliance monitoring of potential transgressors, you are welcome to email.

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15. THE EXPERTWEB (IN DEVELOPMENT)

What is the Expertweb?

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HERE.

I need someone to help me comply with an Act, but no expert is advertising on the page of the Act in respect of which I need assistance. Can you refer me to someone?

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Do I have to pay for an Expertweb member to help me?

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How can I become an Expertweb member?

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If I become an Expertweb member, will I be working for LegalB?

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Do I have to pay to become an Expertweb member?

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I have heard that if I am listed on the Expertweb database, you will recommend us to those who are found to be in transgression while doing a STAQ questionnaire. How does that work?

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