Meat Safety Act, 2000 (Act No. 40 of 2000)19. Offences and penalties |
| 1) | A person commits an offence if he or she- |
| b) | contravenes or fails to comply with a condition imposed in terms of section 8(1)(b), 13(3) or 13(7); |
| c) | refuses or fails to comply with an instruction issued under section 10(1); |
| d) | contravenes or fails to comply with any applicable essential national standard; |
| e) | obstructs or hinders the national executive officer, a provincial executive officer, an officer contemplated in section 3(1)(a)(i) or an authorised person in the exercise of any power or the performance of any duty under this Act, or refuses or fails to comply with a direction referred to in section 16(1)(b); |
| f) | while being a participant in a scheme, contravenes or fails to comply with any provision of that scheme; |
| g) | damages, destroys or otherwise tampers with any sample taken in terms of section 16(1)(e); |
| h) | refuses or fails to furnish information requested in terms of section 16(1)(b)(ii) or furnishes information which is false or misleading, knowing that it is false or misleading; |
| i) | alters or forges any permit, certificate, consent or authority contemplated in this Act; |
| j) | in order to evade any provision of this Act, uses a document which has been altered or forged; |
| k) | sells, removes or tampers with any animal, meat, animal product, material, substance, book, record or other document seized in terms of section 16, or tampers with an identification mark or seal attached thereto or to a container thereof in terms of that section; |
| l) | falsely holds himself or herself out to be the national executive officer, a provincial executive officer, an authorised person or an assignee; or |
| m) | makes a document or causes a document to be made which purports to be but is in fact not a permit, certificate, consent, authority or other document issued in terms of this Act. |
| 2) | Any person who is convicted of an offence in terms of this Act is- |
| a) | in the case of a first conviction, liable to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or to both a fine and such imprisonment; and |
| b) | in the case of a second or subsequent conviction, whether it be for the same offence or for some other offence referred to in subsection (1), liable to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding four years or to both a fine and such imprisonment. |
| 3) | Despite anything to the contrary contained in any other law, a magistrate’s court is competent to impose any penalty provided for in this Act. |