(1)        In this Act, unless the context indicates otherwise—

"accreditation"

means the process of evaluation and recognition by the Council of educational programmes offered by educational institutions in respect of the geomatics profession;

"Appeal Board"

means the Appeal Board established by section 25;

"assessment"

means an admission procedure, established by the Council, to determine whether an applicant is competent to be registered in any of the categories contemplated in section 13(1);

"branch"

means a specific specialisation field of geomatics, including land surveying, topographical surveying, engineering surveying, mine surveying, geo-spatial information science, hydrographic surveying and photogrammetric surveying or any other specialisation field which may be determined by the Minister by notice in the Gazette;

"candidate geomatics practitioner"

means a person registered as a candidate geomatics practitioner in terms of section 13(4)(a);

"category"

means a specific level of registration contemplated in section 13(1) or such other level of registration as may be prescribed by the Minister after consultation with the Council;

"committee"

means a committee of the Council established in terms of section 6;

"Council"

means the South African Geomatics Council established by section 3;

"Department"

means the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform;

"Director-General"

means the Director-General of the Department;

"educational institution"

means any educational institution which has a department, school or faculty, or offers a recognised programme, of geomatics surveying, land surveying or geo-spatial information science;

"financial year"

means a year ending on 31 March;

"geo-spatial information", "geo-information", "geographic information" or "spatial information"

means information that describes the location and characteristics of natural or human-made phenomena in relation to the earth’s surface;

"geomatics practitioner"

means a person who—

"geomatics profession"

means the profession carrying on by persons registered in terms of section 13(4);

"geomatics professional"

means a person registered in terms of section 13(4)(d);

"geomatics technician"

means a person registered in terms of section 13(4)(b);

"geomatics technologist"

means a person registered in terms of section 13(4)(c);

"Minister"

means the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform;

"NQF"

means the National Qualifications Framework contemplated in Chapter 2 of the National Qualifications Framework Act, 2008 (Act No. 67 of 2008);

"prescribed"

means prescribed by regulation;

"professional land surveyor"

means a person—

"register",

when used as a noun, means any of the registers referred to in section 8(1)(b)(ii);

"registered persons"

means persons registered in terms of section 13(4);

"Registrar"

means the person appointed as Registrar in terms of section 8(1)(a)(i);

"regulation"

means any regulation made by the Minister in terms of section 31(1);

"rule"

means any rule made and published by the Council in accordance with this Act;

"sea"

has the meaning ascribed to it in section 1 of the National Environmental Management: Integrated Coastal Management Act, 2008 (Act No. 24 of 2008);

"surveying"

is a component of geomatics work referred to in section 2;

"this Act"

includes any regulation and any rule;

"voluntary association"

means any association, organisation, institute, institution or other body of registered persons recognised by the Council in terms of section 18.