All nine of the African National Congress's (ANC) provincial caucuses will begin meeting this week to prepare programmes for that political party's public engagement process on the controversial Protection of State Information Bill.
The ANC also remained adamant that the bill would be passed into law before the end of the current sitting of Parliament due to end in November.
In September the ANC suddenly withdrew the so-called “secrecy bill” and said it would engage in a round of public consultations using its own party structures to allow for parties to give further input into the draft law.
According to Tuesday's statement from ANC Chief Whip Mothole Motshekga's office an “inter-parliamentary” process would be used, by including the party's caucuses from the national, provincial and local authority spheres of government.
However, the term inter-parliamentary does not mean that Parliament itself was involved and the public consultation process was outside the ambit of the national legislature.
The statement said that the ANC's various caucuses would prepare programmes for its countrywide public engagement process on the bill.
The North West hosted its caucus on Monday, October 17.
The Free State caucus would be conducted on October 19, Gauteng on October 20, Limpopo on October 24, and Mpumalanga on October 27.
All these meetings are closed to the media, which is normal for a political caucus. However, the statement said information relating to meetings of other provinces would be made available in due course.
The statement said that the process of consultation and dissemination of the information through various media channels would ensure that as many people as possible, regardless of their political allegiance, get an opportunity to have a say on the draft legislation before it is passed into law. - I-Net Bridge