Public participation software for South Africa
The register, the notices, the comment period, the minutes and the comments and responses report, in one system that produces the evidence pack rather than making you assemble it.
The evidence pack is the deliverable
Every public participation process in South Africa ends in the same place: a pack of documents that has to satisfy a competent authority and, if it goes wrong, a court.
Regulation 13 makes the practitioner independent and competent, and requires disclosure to the proponent, registered I&APs and the competent authority of all material information that may influence a decision or the objectivity of any report. Since August 2022, only a registered Environmental Assessment Practitioner may hold primary responsibility for an EIA, so that obligation is attached to a named individual. The record is what protects you.
Dated photographs of the site notice. Newspaper tear-sheets. Proof of service for every written notice, whether that is a registered post slip, an email delivery record or a hand-delivery acknowledgement. Attendance registers. Minutes of every meeting. Every written comment received. The register of interested and affected parties. And the comments and responses report that shows what was raised and what you did about it.
Assemble that from a spreadsheet, an Outlook folder and a shared drive and it takes days, it is incomplete more often than not, and it depends entirely on the person who built the workbook still working there. Assemble it from a system built for the job and it's a report you run.
Chapter 6 of the EIA Regulations, and where each duty lives in Tractivity
| Regulation | The duty | In Tractivity |
|---|---|---|
| 40 | Minimum 30 days for all potential or registered I&APs, including the competent authority, to comment on submitted reports | Comment period set per report and per project, with a countdown, automatic reminders and an alert on overdue responses |
| 41(2)(a) | Notice board at a conspicuous, accessible place at the site boundary | Notice logged as an activity against the project, with the dated photograph attached as proof of placement |
| 41(2)(b) | Written notice to occupiers, the landowner, adjacent owners and occupiers, the ward councillor, any ratepayers’ organisation, the municipality and every organ of state with jurisdiction | Notice sent from the platform to a distribution list built from the register, saved automatically against every recipient, so proof of service exists per party rather than in aggregate |
| 41(2)(c) and (d) | Advertisement in a local newspaper, or a Gazette, plus a provincial or national newspaper where impacts cross the municipal boundary | Publication logged with the tear-sheet attached and the date recorded |
| 41(2)(e) | Reasonable alternative methods for people who cannot participate because of illiteracy, disability or other disadvantage | Verbal and interpreted comments recorded against the party as a written record, with the method noted |
| 42 | Register of I&APs: names, contact details and addresses of commenters, meeting attendees, written self-registrants and all organs of state | The register, with how each party joined it recorded as a field, open for inspection and exportable on demand |
| 43 | Right of registered I&APs to comment on all reports, subject to disclosing any direct interest in the outcome | Declared interest held on the party record |
| 44 | Written comments, responses to them and records of meetings attached to the submitted reports | The comments and responses report, exported to Word, Excel or PDF with the register and meeting records attached |
The 5-day and 14-day decision notification windows, and the 20-day appeal window under the National Appeal Regulations 2014, all run off the register. Because an appeal must be served on every registered I&AP, the accuracy of the register isn't administrative housekeeping.
Built for how public participation actually runs
Eight things a practitioner needs on every project, and the reason each one exists.
One register, many projects
Hold a party once and relate them to every project they are involved in, with their role on each. An adjacent landowner on one application is a ratepayers’ association chairperson on another. The stakeholder graph survives the project, so the next EIA in the same area starts from a real register rather than a blank spreadsheet.
Registration the way parties actually register
Written requests, comment forms, attendance registers, and self-registration through a branded public portal (priced separately). Bulk upload from Excel for the records you already hold, an API where a project website feeds the register directly, and manual entry for the phone call at four o’clock on a Friday.
Notices sent and proven
Build a distribution list from the register by project, party type, ward, language preference or interest. Send from the platform and the correspondence is saved against every recipient. Address validation runs before a mailshot goes out and opt-in status is checked, which matters under POPIA section 69 and matters more when the list is 2,000 people.
Comments in, responses out
Log a comment against the party, the project, the report it relates to and the issue it raises. Tag by issue and sentiment. Assign the response to whoever has to write it, with a due date. Then export the comments and responses report as an appendix, sorted however the competent authority prefers.
Comments grouped into issues
Group comments into issues and track each issue with positive, negative or neutral sentiment and a traffic-light status, with impact analysis across the project. When 340 comments raise 14 issues, the report should say 14, not 340.
Meetings and events
Schedule public meetings, focus group sessions and site visits. Record invitations, attendance and minutes against the parties who attended, so the attendance register and the minutes sit in the record rather than in a folder.
Multiple languages, one record
Hold the notice, the Background Information Document, the comment form and the executive summary in as many language versions as the project needs, and track which version each party received. Language preference is a field on the party record.
Commitments, from meeting to closure
When you undertake something in a public meeting, log it as a commitment with an owner and a date, and track it to closure. This is what the next round of participation, and the next appeal, will ask about.
The same record, across the other authorisations
| Authorisation | Participation duty | What Tractivity holds |
|---|---|---|
| Water use licence |
Notice board, written notice to owners, occupiers, adjacent landowners and ward councillors, and a local newspaper advert (plus provincial or national where impacts cross boundaries). Comments close no more than 60 days after the last publication. The register is kept during processing and for two years after the licence is issued (regulation 18). The public participation report includes all comments, objections, meeting records and the register (regulation 19). | The register, notices and comments against each party, with the retention period set per record type* |
| Mining (MPRDA) |
Meaningful consultation in good faith, giving landowners, lawful occupiers and I&APs the relevant information and time to respond (regulation 3). The 2020 amendment adds mine communities, traditional councils, land claimants and holders of informal rights, and lets the Regional Manager observe. | Every group held on one register, with consultation meetings and attendance recorded against them |
| Land development (SPLUMA) | Notice to affected and adjacent owners, an objection period, the applicant's right of reply and a possible Municipal Planning Tribunal hearing. Notice periods are set by each municipality's by-law. | The notice period set per project, not hard-coded |
| Air quality (AQA) | Notice in at least two newspapers circulating in the area. | Each publication logged with the tear-sheet and date attached |
| Administrative fairness (PAJA) | Section 3: adequate notice, a reasonable opportunity to make representations, a clear statement of the action, and notice of appeal rights and the right to request reasons. Section 6(2)(b) makes non-compliance a ground for review. | The complete record, ready if the decision is taken on review |
Every authorisation above runs on the same three things: a register, a record of what was sent and to whom, and a record of what came back and what you did about it. That's what the platform is built around.
Running public participation as a service line
If public participation is a service line rather than an internal function, the requirements change. Each client's projects and records need to stay separate; your teams should see only the mandates they work on, and at the end of a mandate, the client expects a complete record handed over.
Tractivity sets role-based permissions at project, module and record level, and over 150 pre-built reports and configurable dashboards let you report across your whole portfolio rather than one project at a time. At the end of a mandate, the register, correspondence and comments and responses report can be exported for the client.
Frequently asked questions
Public participation is the statutory process set out in Chapter 6 of the EIA Regulations 2014, Regulations 39 to 44, by which interested and affected parties are notified of a proposed activity, given access to the reports, given a minimum of 30 days to comment, and have their comments recorded and responded to. Section 24(4)(a) of the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 makes public information and participation procedures a minimum legal requirement of every environmental impact assessment procedure.
Under Regulation 42 of the EIA Regulations 2014, the register must contain the names, contact details and addresses of everyone who submitted written comments or attended meetings during the public participation process, everyone who requested in writing to be placed on the register, and all organs of state with jurisdiction over the activity. It must be open for inspection on request and supplied to the competent authority on request. In Tractivity, the register builds as parties register, comment or attend, and can be exported for the competent authority on request.
Regulation 41 requires five forms of notice. A notice board at least 60cm by 42cm fixed at a place conspicuous to and accessible by the public at the site boundary. Written notice to occupiers of the site, the owner or person in control of the land, owners and occupiers of adjacent land, the municipal ward councillor, any ratepayers organisation representing the community, the municipality with jurisdiction, and any organ of state having jurisdiction. An advertisement in one local newspaper, or an official Gazette published for environmental applications. Where impacts extend beyond the municipal boundary, an advertisement in at least one provincial or national newspaper. And reasonable alternative methods, agreed with the competent authority, for people who cannot participate because of illiteracy, disability or other disadvantage.
The comments and responses report is the artefact that discharges Regulation 44 of the EIA Regulations 2014, which requires that the comments of interested and affected parties are recorded in reports and plans, and that written comments, the responses to those comments and records of meetings are attached to the reports submitted to the competent authority. In practice, it is a table recording every comment, its author, and the applicant or practitioner response, appended to the Basic Assessment Report, Scoping Report or Environmental Impact Assessment Report. Tractivity produces the comments and responses report from the comments logged against each party, and exports it to Word, Excel or PDF with the register and meeting records attached.
Twenty days. The competent authority must notify the applicant of its decision within five days, and the applicant must then notify every registered interested and affected party within 14 days. Under the National Appeal Regulations 2014, an appeal must be lodged within 20 days of that notification being sent, and the appellant must serve a copy on the applicant, every registered I&AP and any interested organ of state. Because both the notification and the appeal are served using the register, an out-of-date or incomplete register is a direct exposure. Tractivity sends the notification from the register and saves it against every recipient, so there's a record of who was notified and when.
Yes, and in several contexts it is required. MPRDA Regulation 46A requires an approved Social and Labour Plan to be published in English and one dominant local language within 30 days. Section 18 of the Municipal Systems Act requires municipalities to take into account language preferences and usage in the area when communicating with the community. Tractivity holds the translated versions you provide against one record and tracks which version each party received.
Tractivity runs on Microsoft Azure with UK data residency by default, and European, US and other regions available. If in-country hosting is a requirement of your tender, tell us at the outset and we'll confirm in writing what we can deliver. For the POPIA position on cross-border transfers, see POPIA and your stakeholder database.
Yes. The same register, notices and comments record supports water use licence applications, MPRDA consultation, SPLUMA land development applications and atmospheric emission licensing, with notice periods set per project rather than hard-coded.
Bring us a live project
The fastest way to judge this is to walk through a project you are running now: the register you have, the comment round you are in, the report you owe.
Book a personalised demonstration with the team or read POPIA and your stakeholder database first.