Cabinet ministers were given until Monday, September 4, to submit priority bills to Parliament for processing this year ahead of the 2024 national and provincial elections.
This came after National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and Deputy President Paul Mashatile met recently over the processing of bills from the executive.
The executive had planned to submit 42 bills to Parliament this year in terms of the executive legislative programme that was submitted in April 2023.
According to National Assembly secretary Masibulele Xaso, the issue of deadlines for legislation came up during an interaction between Mapisa-Nqakula and Mashatile, in his capacity as the leader of Government Business.
“The date was given as 4 September for submission of legislation. Next week, we will give an update on that,” Xaso said.
IFP chief whip Narend Singh raised concern over bills being introduced this late in the year.
“Will there be sufficient time to deal with those before we adjourn the sixth Parliament?” Singh asked.
Mapisa-Nqakula said she had expected the all bills to have been submitted to Parliament in August.
“There was a proposal that we should give him an extension and that extension is up to 4 September.
“I am expecting that right now there is a process of wrapping up from the side of the executive and expect all these pieces which require processing by Parliament will be submitted,” she said.
Mashatile’s parliamentary counsellor, ANC MP Hope Papo, said the issue of deadlines for the submission of executive bills had been raised by the leader of Government Business in almost every Cabinet session, including one held last Wednesday.
“Ministers were informed that after 4 September there will be no further extensions if there are no submissions on that day,” Papo said.
He also said reminders were sent to the affected ministers “so that we don’t have love letters coming to you (Mapisa-Nqakula) after 4 September asking for extension”.
Mapisa-Nqakula said: “I hope that the honourable members will not let us down or disappoint on this one.”
According to the Parliament’s bills office, 11 out of the 42 executive bills were submitted to Parliament.
There were four bills on the National Assembly order paper.
Four were still to be read for the time.
The bills, approved by the Cabinet and certified for introduction, include the Statistics Amendment Bill, National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill, General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill and the National Sport and Recreation Bill.
At least one of the bills was to be referred to mediation.
One of the priority bills still to be introduced in Parliament was the Marriages Amendment Act after the Constitutional Court found the Marriage Act invalid and unconstitutional in so far as Muslim marriages were concerned.
Although there was a private member's bill from Al-jama-ah, parliamentary legal advisor Charmaine van der Merwe said the Department of Home Affairs had developed a draft bill and was calling for public input.
“Our concern is that the order lapses in June 2024. Given we are looking at elections, we are concerned about making the deadline,” she said.
Van der Merwe also said the amendment bill was dealing with matters related to marriages, all religions, and types of unions.
“It will probably be an extensive bill that will have to be widely consulted,” she said.
Meanwhile, the EFF’s Bill on Relocation of the Seat of Parliament has been referred for consideration by the public works and infrastructure portfolio committee.
The committee, which intends to deal with the bill during this term, is expected to come up with a programme of processing it.
The red berets want Parliament to be moved from Cape Town to Pretoria, and it could be relocated after a legislative process that will culminate in a bill being passed by the national legislature.
Cape Times