House Chair, it's a pleasure to introduce what I think is a Bill that will command broad support in this House, the Legal Metrology Bill of 2013.
The International Organisation of Legal Metrology defines legal metrology as, and I quote:
... the application of legal requirements to measurements and measuring instruments.
Legal metrology is thus concerned with measurements that directly affect consumers, and ensures the quality and credibility of measurements that are used directly in regulations and in areas of trade.
It deals with the risks of misuse of measuring instruments, and of tampering and accidental influences on measuring instruments as well as with issues like the traceability of measurements, thus providing an appropriate level of credibility of measurement results in the regulatory domain. In a broader sense, legal metrology covers the protection of society in areas of health, safety and the environment, and is thus concerned with the interaction between regulations and measurements.
The Legal Metrology Bill which is before the House today replaces the Trade Metrology Act of 1973 which, after 40 years, is outdated and does not provide for the regulation of legal metrology instruments but is limited only to some parts of that, namely weights and measures, and ensures that measurements made by industries when trading using scales, meters and other measuring equipment are accurate.
Legal metrology will afford the same kind of assurance with additional measurements, such as those with respect to water consumption, speeding on the roads, blood pressure determinations, and so on.
This Bill will be administered by the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications, who will be charged with contacting this and is part of the broad DTI family. Over the course of this administration we have sought, as a matter of important policy, to strengthen and bring to the forefront the work of technical infrastructure institutions, also known as standardisation, quality assurance and metrology institutions. We have coined a phrase to say that the role of the technical infrastructure institutions is on the one hand to "lock in" South African products to import and export markets by enabling them to meet the standards and requirements of entry into those markets. At the same time, and this concerns the work of the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications, the role of technical infrastructure is to "lock out" the substandard South African market products that are harmful to health and consumer interests, and also create unfair competition to South African produces that meet the standards.
As already indicated, the Legal Metrology Bill essentially takes forward the principles that were there in earlier legislation by expanding the scope of trade metrology to legal metrology, and allows for a broader range of measurements in the environment of commerce and industry. The strengthening of the enforcement of legal metrology within an appropriate legislative framework supports industrial development in all the ways that I have indicated.
This Bill also brings about a significant change in the structure and corporate governance of the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications. These changes are encapsulated in clause 42 of the Bill, as well as in schedule 2. The National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications, which administers this Bill, is currently overseen by a board. Through the passage of this Bill this will change to a governance structure where the chief executive officer will report directly to the Department of Trade and Industry, in fact, to the Minister of the department. This is done to implement a decision that we have taken, of bringing regulators closer to the department to improve efficiency and to cut out unnecessary layers of bureaucracy in between.
Legal metrology impacts on our everyday lives. It affects many of our ordinary day-to-day decisions - the meat we buy from the butchery, the prepacked staple such as mealie meal, or the volume of fuel that we buy. All of these are subject to measurements of one sort or another. We assume that the litre of fuel that we buy is in fact a litre, but how much gas, or fumes, does it include as well as the liquid. If these transactions are not accurately measured according to regulations, then we as consumers pay too much for the product and we are cheated in this way. Government can also lose out on tax revenue.
I think that this is a piece of legislation that is technical in nature. I want to commend the portfolio committee for the work which they did in organising public hearings and in improving the Bill. I have no hesitation in commending the Bill to the House. I trust that it will draw broad support across the House. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Chairperson, on a point of order: I just want to say that the system is actually incorrect. The hon Minister had five minutes according to the agreed time, but the system reflected two minutes. I think it is just important that we restore the integrity of the system.
Yes, I think they have corrected it now in the process.
Hon Chair, hon Deputy President, hon members of this House, colleagues, comrades and the people of South Africa to whom this Bill is directed as beneficiaries, the enactment of the Legal Metrology Bill will underpin the quality and credibility of regulatory instruments in the health, safety, environmental and trade domains. It will do this through traceability of measurement and development of technical regulations.
Metrology is the science of measurement and its application. It represents something we value so much in our own country. It represents trust in the results obtained. South Africa's national metrology system represents infrastructure that enables the performance and application of measurement for purposes that mirror the economic and social core of our nation.
South Africa is committed to industrialisation to create jobs and grow the economy. Our strategic trade underpins industrialisation. South Africa's standards, quality assurance and metrology regulatory entities work together seamlessly to ensure our products and goods meet international requirements.
The Legal Metrology Bill strengthens South Africa's planned priorities, the Industrial Policy Action Plan, the New Growth Path and the National Development Plan.
The National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications will, through this Bill - and this is what is so important - put the imprimatur stamp of sound metrology and quality assurance on all goods produced or manufactured in our great country, South Africa. [Applause.]
The Legal Metrology Bill will ensure uniformity of and conformity to measurement requirements. With regard to those who flout the law, leading to a loss of credibility of our products and services, and even loss of lives - of infants, mothers and even you yourselves, should you be in an accident - we say "thank heaven there is a 10-year penalty for our courts to consider." [Laughter.]
Indeed, the purpose of the Legal Metrology Bill, I want to repeat and repeat as a mantra, is to give confidence to you and me, me in my urban area and you in your rural areas, where sometimes you think we do not hear you. This will ensure that your lives get even greater protection.
When you fill up your car, and more importantly when buying your groceries and so on, you can be sure that you are getting the weight that is printed on the label. During blood pressure measurement blood pressure scales get you five different measurements, and you are not sure what to believe. [Interjections.] That is going to change. Don't tell me that you haven't had your blood pressure measured!
Is this a new thing? No, it is not a new thing. It has been going on for more than 5 000 years. As countries - perhaps there weren't countries then - as nation states and societies, they said it was important for their authorities, their governments or their states to take these measurements into account to protect them. Hence, a symbiotic relationship developed between the state and measurements to provide protection and services, and to plan and defend them, and in turn, of course, to raise the necessary revenue.
The ANC government has always been committed to developing an enabling environment in which people, especially formerly economically and politically dispossessed people, could and can now rely on the state to provide such protection and facilitate an architecture that is equitably driven so that you can thrive no matter where you are living in South Africa. You know that what you manufacture or produce will get a standard and imprimatur stamped on it so that it can successfully compete internationally.
Let me tell you, for the ordinary businessman worried about his pocket, when ships are overloaded they have to be unloaded due to what has happened and this has to be reported in the media. Here goods have been found to be overweight and had to be unloaded at great cost to whoever produced them, who were hoping to benefit from the profits.
How long did we go on before we came about? I said it was 5000 years ago that it started, but in modern history most of us in the House have heard of the French Revolution. Well, apart from anything else, that was also a revolution about the haves and the have-nots. It was about feudalism, those in charge of the feudal system and their right to nonuniformity and inconsistency in measures and units to the detriment of the poor, the have nots. This contributed to the inequalities and ensured inconsistency of measures, and even fraud and constant disputes.
Indeed, one of the victories of the French Revolution was the establishment of a uniform system of weights and measures, out of which grew the metric system. We are all working with this, and South Africa is pioneering steps forward. We are determined in South Africa to overcome the current challenges in this regard through the Legal Metrology Bill.
Land is, of course, another sensitive issue. It's a highly critical issue that will also benefit from measurements relating to prescribed purposes as designated in the Bill. The Legal Metrology Bill should be seen as an overarching Bill on measurement, really overarching. For example, in the sale of land or property it is applied to any such transaction. The regulations that are prescribed there will take into account the existing legislation. Thus the concerns that we raised in this regard will fall away.
Now, one vital issue is of fees. The private sector said their business would be taken away: "Oh, you are undercutting us!" The fact of the matter is that the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications has a fixed scale of fees and verification fees are charged accordingly. They are acknowledged by the private sector. We know that the private sector has to charge market rates - fair enough. Nevertheless, there is a sound working relationship between the two sectors. They work together very well.
They are also both experiencing shortages of staff in different directions. May I add with respect to legal metrology that they have also introduced an intern system. There are 11 interns and a training system is under way, and, yes, they are working together with the private sector. They are saying, "Let us see where we can fill in here and there." When expertise is lacking, of course, they make themselves available.
This is not a simple technical Bill. It is a Bill whose enactment and implementation will directly improve the quality of life of all South Africans, especially the most vulnerable who don't have the resources to contest metrology challenges.
The ANC therefore supports this important piece of legislation. I have every reason to believe that every member of this House will support this. I thank you. [Applause.]
Chair, hon members, Legal Metrology casts into law measures that guarantee that instruments using current norms accurately measure what needs to be measured, such as a car's speed, the pressure of our blood, our blood alcohol content, units of electricity, litres of petrol, weights of trucks at weighbridges, the directions of a compass and the rhythmic intervals of music.
We take it for granted that the things that measure what needs to be measured are accurate, and it is accurately done, but in order to add certainty to certainty we have the Legal Metrology Bill before us. Having such a system is vital in building trust in the use of expert knowledge in the service of better lives for all.
The purpose of the Bill, as you have learnt, is to promote fair trade by providing market inspectors for a capacity check that, when we buy goods sold by weight, for example, the scales measure the displayed mass of what is inside the bottles, and to better protect public health and safety by regulating the way in which measuring instruments are used, stored, serviced, repaired and handled.
For example, it is critical that blood pressure monitors in hospitals and clinics read accurately, and when, it comes to combating drunk driving, that the alcohol analysis machines are incontrovertibly precise and stand up to the most rigorous scrutiny in a court of law.
Finally, the Bill empowers the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications to administer and to enforce all legal metrology regulations in our country. The ability of the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications to do so requires staff capacity to reach into the clinics in the remotest parts of our country to ensure that medical devices work properly. However, we are not convinced that the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications has enough budget to do so.
Chair, this Bill is uncontroversial and we in the committee have jointly solved all of its problems of substance, which were, firstly, that, the Bill as tabled provided that market surveillance inspectors, and verification and repair officers, all had to be employees of the NRCS. As we know, we have a thriving private industry in instrument repair and verification. The Department of Trade and Industry was very happy to change this. Now the Bill says that only market surveillance inspectors need to be state employees. As long as their qualifications are certified by the NRCS, the other related technical professionals may be drawn from the private sector.
Secondly, the DA is viscerally opposed to the making of laws by regulation and is opposed to giving any Minister discretionary powers, especially this Minister who, in his admirable devotion to hard work, is also overzealous in his unbridled enthusiasm to regulate everything that moves. However, in the area of legal metrology the regulation of measuring instruments must comply with the SA National Standards, as determined by the SA Bureau of Standards, the international standards for conformity assessment and calibration of legal metrology instruments, and the Convention on the International Organisation of Legal Metrology. As these standards and conventions are themselves constantly changing as technology and metrological science advance, there is a need, indeed, to allow the Minister to issue regulations. We have no problems with that at all.
It is one thing, hon members, to ensure instrumentation quality. It is quite another thing for human beings to use these instruments properly. The use of instruments, especially in the health sphere, more often than not requires sophisticated training. Also, the Minister of Health must assure us that he is satisfied with the quality of professional and paraprofessional training. The Ministers of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs and those responsible for safety and security must assure us that traffic officers and the police know how to use breathalysers properly.
Chair, the Bill is uncontroversial in that it provides for fairer trade and will better protect consumers from unscrupulous traders and substandard service, some of which is a matter of life and death.
I must finally bring to the attention of Minister Davies the problems that the Western Cape roads executive have had with type approval for breathalysers, as they have had with conformity and type approval with truck weighbridges. The Minister would do very well to engage with provinces on this particular subject.
The DA supports the Legal Metrology Bill. Thank you. [Applause.]
Chairman, this Bill, as we have heard, is a very small technical Bill, but if we didn't have it, our country would be in crisis. Indeed, we can be thankful for the technocrats in our Public Service who have the skills and knowledge to give effect to these important laws. Thank you, all of you, for your inputs into this Bill.
Mr Speaker, it was President Julius Nyerere who warmly looked forward to South Africas becoming a free and liberated nation, because he saw the technology and skills that South Africa already had as adding prestige to all of Africa.
This Bill reaffirms Mwalimu's wisdom because it demonstrates that there have been technologically high international standards in measurements for over 100 years. The first measuring law was drafted in 1902, the year in which the Anglo-Boer War ended and a laboratory was established soon after in Pretoria, where I as a very small boy stood fascinated to see what one pound looked like as the standard measure. Managing our trade and ensuring honesty in business needs a Bill like this.
You know, Mr Speaker, a document called "Ready to Govern" was produced by the ANC in the 1990s. I always thought that there was a note of apprehension and whistling in the dark in the very title of that document.
What we have learnt now in our portfolio committee, and our chairlady, to her credit, freely admitted it, is that this Bill is not some little technical matter, but a vital and important law for doing the work of running a modern urban and industrialised society, as we are in South Africa. It is having the legal and technical infrastructure in place, of which this Bill is part, that enables South Africa to take its place as part of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, group of nations.
On Thursday, Mr Chairman, I was at Saldanha and there we saw the Department of Trade and Industry not doing its proper, technical job. Its meeting, which was the very important delivery of a special economic zone to the licensee, was hijacked by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Marius Fransman. I saw him in action and I must say that after his anti-Semitic remarks and a few other things he said, all I could think of was "gauleiter". He was a scandal, and the Minister has had a letter from me setting out my views on that. The ANC could easily have had a rally before or after the meeting, at which the President and Mr Fransman could have spoken. I must continue with a comment on the President. At that meeting he gave the ANC a little lecture on what proper democracy means, and I think he deserves our recognition for doing that.
There's a quotation from the Good Book, which means people will know it, ...
Mr Speaker, it could be that one couldn't hear clearly what the hon member was saying, but I think there's been a slight misrepresentation of the facts. We were all there and, in fact, President Zuma was at pains to clarify things. May I also ask: Can he speak to the Bill?
Hon member that is not a point of order. You are also expressing an opinion. Go ahead, hon member.
Mr Chairman, if we apply ...
Hon Chairperson, the real point of order is that when the Bill is supposed to be being read for the second time, people speaking on it must speak on the content of the Bill. [Interjections.]
Hon member, that is correct - we should stick to the content of the Bill.
Mr Chairman, my understanding is that the Second Reading debate is a wide open debate. Moreover, we are dealing with something from the Department of Trade and Industry and they need not be embarrassed about what happened in Saldahna because it is the truth.
Chair, we are requesting that the member to stick to the Rules. Rule 253 is very specific. Can the member stick to the Rules of the House and not contest them?
Mr Chairman, I would rather take my instructions from you and not from another member of this House. Shall I now go back to the Bill, Mr Chairman? [Applause.] [Interjections.]
There is quotation from in the book of Proverbs the Good Book, that says: "The Lord detests the use of dishonest scales, but He" - the Lord - "delights in accurate weights."
In isiZulu we have a word for "honesty". It is "ubuqotho", which means "integrity". Of course, it is not only the mass or weight, that has to be measured, with is important for the goods we buy, but also the alcohol limit in your blood and the speed at which you travel, as well as the ingredients ... [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Chairperson, Deputy President and colleagues in the House, I am not a member of this committee. I'm merely rising on behalf of my colleague who's indisposed as you know. He would like to say that the science of metrology engenders certainty, and therefore confidence in our measurement standards on a national and also a comparative global basis. It also provides a reference analysis in the event of a measurement dispute, and maintains and develops primary methods for chemical analysis in order to certify reference materials for South Africa and the region.
Many of the members before me spoke about the obvious advantages of the Bill, and I don't wish to repeat any of that, but a concern that was raised by one member is also a concern of my colleague, namely that the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications, which is said to be understaffed and underresourced, will have to enforce the legislation. It is also said that it doesn't have the necessary inspection facilities to ensure legal compliance. Colleagues, we trust - and we are saying this to the Minister in particular - that this will be addressed by the department and we look forward to a new financing model that will place the NRCS in a position to fulfil its mandate, as anticipated in the Bill.
We agree with the registration of all repairers, which will bring confidence to consumers, who can now be assured of certain uniform standards of repair that will assist in the elimination of rogue repairers.
Chair, this is an uncontroversial, though important Bill, and we support it fully.
Hon Chairperson, hon Deputy President, all Ministers and Deputy Ministers, the director-general and staff from the Department of Trade and Industry, and all members of this important House, today marks another historic milestone in the number of pieces of legislation passed by the ANC government since the start of the democratic dispensation - that of introducing the Legal Metrology Bill for adoption by this Parliament.
The purpose of the Bill is to promote fair trade, and protect public health and safety, and the environment. Furthermore, the Bill provides for market surveillance by the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications in order to ensure compliance with the legal metrology regulations.
Legal metrology is the entirety of the legislative, administrative and technical procedures established by or with reference to public authorities, and implemented on their behalf in order to specify and to ensure, in a regulatory or contractual manner, the appropriate quality and credibility of measurements relating to official controls, trade, health, safety and the environment. The application of the Legal Metrology Bill relates to the measurement of products and services. These are measurements in trade, safety and the environment.
In regard to health and the environment, the Bill specifically applies, for example, to the following areas. There are medical devices, some of which are syringes, blood pressure instruments and scales. These are devices that are involved in the medical measurement of, for example, temperature and blood. The importance of this is that an inaccurate measure of the scale of a syringe could result in an incorrect dosage, which might even lead to death. Secondly, there are safely measurements - measurements of speed and alcohol. The same is true for the safety measurements, where an incorrect measurement of alcohol content could have serious implications. Then there are environmental measurements, such as smoke emissions and water pollution.
The Bill, in sections 19 and 20, provides for verification officers, persons responsible for repairs, and market surveillance inspectors. Market surveillance inspectors are to monitor and enforce compliance with the provisions of the Legal Metrology Bill, and will inspect whether the product manufactured or offered for sale complies with metrological, technical regulations. This is to protect the user or the consumer from any incorrect measure that may lead to undesirable consequences. The Bill further makes provision for NRCS staff as market surveillance inspectors.
The Bill also makes provision for another organ of state to perform market surveillance, where an organ of state already exists and performs that task, in order not to have duplication. For example, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa is responsible for electricity meters. We don't have to duplicate that particular task. The above points, as provided for by the Bill, will put the user and the consumer at ease, knowing that the measurement given using a particular instrument will be correct, and that there will be no undesirable consequences which result in a catastrophic situation. This is indeed historic, and I firmly believe that because of the visionary character of the ANC, its understanding of the global environment, and its playing a leadership role as the glorious movement, it is an opportune time to realise that the ANC lives and leads.
In conclusion, with regard to some utterances, I think the Legal Metrology Bill has nothing to do with a protest action which happened as a result of service delivery challenges in the Western Cape. Hon Chairperson, the ANC supports the Legal Metrology Bill. [Applause.]
Hon Chair, the ACDP wishes, firstly, to place on record its appreciation and thank the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, the hon Mrs Fubbs, as well as all other members of the committee, who applied their minds to the drafting of this Legal Metrology Bill.
It is the understanding of the ACDP that this Bill was necessitated by international best practice, and is being introduced to replace the Trade Metrology Act, thus ensuring that South Africa does indeed have the technical infrastructure to guarantee that products originating in our country are safe and well suited to their intended purpose.
The Bill seeks to ensure the appropriate quality and credibility of regulatory measurement results in the health, safety, environment and trade domains through the traceability of measurements and the development of technical regulations. In addition, it encompasses the monitoring and enforcement of measurements in the appropriate domains, and consumer protection, as well as the levelling of the playing field for industry.
The ACDP is cognisant of the fact that globalisation is placing increasing demands on countries to ensure that those countries have the technical infrastructure to guarantee that products originating in their territories are safe and fit for purpose. Of critical importance to the ACDP is to understand that technical infrastructure which has not compromised standards, quality assurance, metrology and accreditation is also used in the Industrial Policy Action Plan. It is used to lock out noncompliant products and to lock in compliant South African products to export markets.
Hon Chair, the ACDP supports the Legal Metrology Bill, as it lays the foundation for maintaining and improving our regulatory institutions so that they remain relevant as the platform for economic efficiency and market access for all South African products. I thank you.
Mutshamaxitulu, [Chairperson,] ...
... Deputy President, Ministers and Members of Parliament, challenges facing the democratic South Africa are influenced by science, information technology, and economic development, as the world is shrinking daily in a functional manner.
In the olden days scales were used in trading environments where beans, flour or meat would be put on a scale and all weighed the same way. In this way goods were sold to consumers. Nowadays most measuring instruments are digital, in keeping with the technological development of world standards.
Historically the regulator's role was limited to examining the scales that I spoke of. He or she was limited to ensuring that those scales were well calibrated. The South African Bureau of Standards also played a great role in that regard.
What motivated amendment of the Act? The amendment of the Act was motivated by the fact that the tools that have to be monitored have increased in scope so that the responsibility of the DTI in this regard is wider than it was historically. Some of the new areas to be supervised by the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications are blood pressure monitoring machines and electricity and water metering systems.
There is an essential relationship between the South Africa Bureau of Standards, the NRCS and the Department of Water Affairs. The regulator approves the measurement system, ensures that it can be used and monitors it continually to ensure that it is compliant. Some of the tools to be monitored and approved by the NRCS are speed trap measuring tools, so that cars that exceed the speed limit can be prosecuted successfully.
Consumers have to be protected in areas like thermometer usage and prepacked medications, eg, cough mixture. If measurements are not properly monitored it could result in death, as some speakers preceding me have said. Some of the verification functions are: supervising laboratories, verifying measuring instruments and focusing on users in the industry to ensure improved levels of service to the public.
Another motivation for this step to be taken is that rural areas are sometimes ignored by the private sector in this regard. The private sector is only focused on maximum profit and considers it uneconomic to meet verification needs in the industry in rural places. The regulator has an obligation to provide such a service.
One of the objectives of the Legal Metrology Bill is to protect consumers against unscrupulous, exploitative service providers and businesses. It is also to repair that measuring instruments and ensure they are in compliance. It is also to monitor the in manner of use, and the possession or sale of measuring instruments and products.
In regard to the repair of measuring instruments, the Bill allows people that repair instruments to be registered with a repair body. If they are not registered, they will be acting illegally and ...
... ijele liyobe libafanele impela. [... prison would be suitable for them.]
This is in line with ensuring that people with correct and adequate competencies repair measuring instruments.
Indaba yomkokotelo ayifuneki neze lapha. [We don't need incompetent people.]
Secondly, the Bill allows for the elimination of conflict of interest with respect to the repair person and the person verifying the instrument of measurement, by not allowing the repair person to verify the instrument. In other words, you cannot be a technician who repairs the instrument and at the same time verify that the instrument is correct. The verification has to be done by another party. This will ensure that instruments of measurement that are not repaired correctly or have faults do not pass verification tests and get to measure incorrectly for the consumer. Further, the Bill allows for the person that does the repairs to give a guarantee to the user that the instrument of measurement has been repaired and measures correctly. This guarantee should be given before the instrument of measurement is utilised.
The above points, as proposed by the Bill, will put the user - the consumer - at ease that the measurement given when using that instrument is correct. Confidence is of utmost importance.
Moreover, should a person repairing an instrument of measurement not comply with the requirements of this Bill, that person is guilty of an offence.
Regarding the manner of use, the possession or the sale of measuring instruments and products, the Bill only allows for the sale of verified measuring instruments. It prohibits the sale of false, faulty or inaccurate measuring instruments. It also prohibits any person from making a false statement of quantity, incorrectly declaring the quality of a product, or misleading any person in regard to quantity. This further ensures that consumers buy the correct quantity of goods and are not misled into paying a certain amount for a smaller quantity.
Where are these accurate measurements needed? As the preceding speakers have said, they are needed, for example, on freeways where trucks carrying heavy loads that damage the roads are charged in accordance with the weight. It is important that the machinery that weighs them is accurate.
The industry itself is encouraged to do a whole lot of self-assessment and self-management, particularly of the areas of repair work and verification work. It must not always wait for government to criticise it - self- criticism is sometimes important for the industry.
As I finish my speech, let me say, hon McIntosh, that you were saved by the Chairperson. Otherwise ...
... bengizogibela phezu kwakho! [... I would be on your case!]
Chairperson, you really saved hon McIntosh.
Hon member James, I think you will agree with me that the DTI consults widely. On this Bill it consulted, held public hearings and also made sure that all interested parties made inputs so that by the time the Act is amended, all the inputs and concerns have been taken into account. In other words, I differ with you when you say that sometimes the Minister use shortcut routes. He always takes a long route, but an effective one. Thank you very much, members. [Applause.]
Chairperson, thanks to all participants in the debate and for the support for this important piece of legislation.
On the question of capacity to enforce, let me say that the Bill itself provides for a fee structure which is similar to the fee structure which the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications, operates on at the moment. That's a combination of public funding and the fees which are requested from the industry itself.
As far as enforcement is concerned, even if we got all the money that we could wish for, we are not going to be able to deal with enforcement through the mechanism of routine surveillance. The way we have to deal with this is by working smart, by intelligence-driven enforcement, and by building partnerships with affected stakeholders.
At the moment the NRCS is involved in setting standards which prescribe, for example, that paraffin stoves are supposed to be ones which, if they fall over or are knocked over, are not supposed to spill all the fuel and set fire to the entire settlement or all the buildings around it. They are supposed to be ones where the flame goes out as the thing falls over. We have plenty of others that are trying to enter the market and the NRCS is doing a good job intercepting those. It also deals with electricity apparatus, crash helmets, food products, medicines and all kinds of things which do not meet the specifications.
The way we do it is that we work in partnership with the Revenue Service. We also call on the industry players, who know what is outcompeting them because the standards are low. We are all for those kinds of partnerships. That's how we are going to work with responsibilities in respect of legal metrology as well.
With respect to the question raised by hon James about breathalysers and weighbridges in the Western Cape, we deal with those matters in the spirit of co-operative governance, and the department concerned should approach us. I heard it first when hon James raised it. If the department concerned would like to contact us, we will, of course, consider their presentation. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
Bill read a second time.