Cape Town - Member of the legislature’s standing committee on social development were on Tuesday treated to a lesson in constitutional history during a briefing at which they deliberated over whether they were allowed to repeal pre-democracy era laws.
The legal debate by two lawyers was the main feature of a session during which the committee received a briefing by the Social Development Department on the Western Cape Laws Repeal Bill.
Responding to queries from the committee about the legality of the bill, advocate Shehnaz Seria from the Department of the Premier said: “In order to understand whether a provincial legislature may lawfully repeal or amend specific provision of old order legislation, you need to look at the interim constitution which was the fundamental law of South Africa from the first non-racial general election on April 27, 1994, until it was superseded by the final Constitution on February 4, 1997.
“In a nutshell, this Constitution effectively transferred executive power to provincial governments concerning the administration of old order legislation.”
Legislature legal adviser Romeo Maasdorp said: “I was of the opinion that the province doesn’t have the capacity or the legislative competence to repeal national legislation.
“However, on further reading I found that provincial legislation is not just laws that a particular province has made, but is also laws that existed before the Constitution and administered by that particular province. So indeed the legislation is repealable.”
Procedural officer Ben Dasa told the committee it must decide on its public participation process on the bill.
Chairperson Gillion Bosman said: “Due to the pandemic we cannot go out and physically engage with stakeholders on the bill.
"Instead we can schedule virtual public hearings and encourage our stakeholders to attend and give input during those meetings.
“We also should encourage people to make written submissions on the bill. We can then invite very specific stakeholders."
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