This agency was best known for its protection of several thousand 'national monuments', responsibility for which the new legislation devolved to provincial level and renamed 'provincial heritage sites', the term used in most provinces to describe them.
[2] The Act establishes three grades of heritage resource which broadly indicate significance at national, provincial and local level.
[5] In the Northern Cape the PHRA was initially set up in terms of the National Heritage Resources Act, but in 2014 provincial legislation was passed.
[6] The government of the Eastern Cape Province initially set up a PHRA under provincial legislation, but in 2012 reestablished it in terms of the national Act.
[7] All PHRAs are public entities in terms of South Africa's Public Finance Management Act[8] PHRAs are able to exercise the bulk of the powers to protect heritage resources set out in Chapter II of the National Heritage Resources Act.