Johannesburg - The Protection and Promotion of Investment Bill is facing a legal challenge after Parliament approved it amidst strong objection from opposition parties.
The DA yesterday did not indicate when it will launch the court challenge on the bill.
However, DA MP and its spokesman on trade and industry, Geordin Hill-Lewis, said that they would first write to President Jacob Zuma, urging him not to sign it into law. If Zuma signed the bill into law the DA would take the government to court, said Hill-Lewis.
He repeated his earlier statement in Parliament two weeks ago that this was a bad bill. He said more than 80 percent of the investors were opposed to it.
After the bill passed the last legislative hurdle on Thursday in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) the ANC welcomed it. The DA has maintained that it is a bad bill.
Yet Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies insisted that the bill was in line with the laws of the country.
The ANC in the NCOP also supported the bill, but the DA warned of serious consequences. It stuck to its guns that it faced a legal challenge.
Like Davies, the ANC in the NCOP said the R6 billion investment by BMW at the Rosslyn plant in Pretoria two weeks ago was a big boost for the economy. The minister and the ANC said this investment was done despite the bill being in place. They said other investors were happy about the bill.
Opposed
But Hill-Lewis said the bill was bad for South Africa and would chase away investors.
He insisted that more than 80 percent of the investors were opposed to it.
Their last port of call was Zuma, but if he signed it into law they would have no option but to go to court. This is one of a few controversial bills that Zuma has not signed into law.
Zuma has not yet signed the Private Security Industry Regulation Amendment Bill, despite being at his desk for more than a year. Parliament passed this bill in February 2014, but Zuma has stalled in signing it.
The opposition parties, including the DA, argued that the Private Security Industry Regulation Amendment Bill would chase away investors, because it prescribes that foreign-owned private security companies must sell 51 percent of their stake to South African companies.
Zuma has also stalled to sign another controversial bill, dubbed the Secrecy Bill, because it threatens to jail journalists with state secrets.
The Protection of State Information Bill has been sitting in Zuma’s office since 2013, but to date Zuma has kept his hands off the bill.
There is no indication when Zuma will sign the Protection and Promotion of Investment Bill into law.
The bill replaces all existing bilateral trade agreements with various countries.
Davies has said this bill would protect all investments in the country.
He also said since the bill was introduced there had not been a single threat of investors pulling out of the country.
Davies has told Parliament that if investors were not happy about some areas on the legislation, like the expropriation of property, they could refer the cases to international arbitration.
BUSINESS REPORT