The ANC on Wednesday rammed through the processing of the bill that will give Police Minister Bheki Cele more powers over the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), including the power to appoint the executive director.
The governing party pushed that the police portfolio committee adopt the motion of desirability of the Ipid Amendment Bill despite the chief state law adviser refusing to certify it and the parliamentary legal adviser and an independent senior counsel finding the amendment bill unconstitutional.
The amendment bill provides that the minister, with the concurrence of the Cabinet, shall appoint the Ipid executive director. This is a departure from the current act that makes a provision for the police minister to nominate a new Ipid head and that allows for MPs to either approve or reject the nomination.
The proposed amendment bill also gives powers to Cele to determine the remuneration of Ipid investigators in consultation with the finance minister.
DA MP Andrew Whitfield said there was no dispute around the unconstitutionality of the bill.
“It appears to be unprecedented that Parliament should deal with a bill that is not certified by the office of the state law adviser and even continue to amend the bill,” he said.
Underpinning their concerns was a “nefarious agenda” by Cele, who was not present at Wednesday’s and last week’s meetings to answer their questions.
“A nefarious agenda has been calculated to monopolise control over the entire department in so far as the Civilian Secretariat that reports to the minister, the national commissioner and ultimately the (Ipid) executive director appointed and reporting to the minister,” said Whitfield.
NFP’s Munzoor Shaik-Emam questioned the basis of the committee discussing the matter when there was legal advice pointing to the bill’s unconstitutionality.
“I think we are going to shoot ourselves in the foot and that is basically what is going to happen,” Shaik-Emam said.
IFP’s Zandile Majozi: “If we have received advice that states clearly that the removal of Parliament involvement renders the bill unconstitutional, I am not sure why we are discussing it.”
Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Groenewald asked why they should process the bill knowing it was unconstitutional.
“I can’t imagine that the Cabinet, knowing that it is an unconstitutional bill, then submitted and tabled in Parliament. If that is true, the integrity of the Cabinet is at stake,” Groenewald said.
ANC MP Patricia Peacock said it had been indicated that amendments could be made to the bill.
“Since correction and amendments can be made we can move to a motion of desirability,” Peacock said.
Deputy Minister Cassel Mathale said the guidance from the parliamentary legal adviser was that the committee could proceed to process the bill.
Mathale also said they indicated that they had received the legal opinion and sent it to the committee.
“We could not withdraw the bill that was already submitted to the committee. That was to delay the whole process,” he said.
When the matter was put to a vote, the ANC and the opposition obtained four votes each.
Newly-elected chairperson Albert Seabi cast his vote to give the green light for the bill to be processed by the committee.
The MPs heard that the bill would be advertised for public comments until October 2, followed by public hearings before the adoption of the report in November.
Cape Times