Port Elizabeth - Sonke Gender Justice (Sonke) has joined the protest of the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill (TKLB) and the Traditional Courts Bill (TCB), because they are anti-democratic, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
Sonke said that as part of the Alliance for Rural Democracy, it would join campaign and march on 5 June against the signing into law of the two bills, which it said were unconstitutional and would be a return to Apartheid homelands, "subjecting people to different laws in different parts of the country".
The bills also infringed on property rights, access to courts and gender equality, Sonke said.
“The passing of these Bills will not adhere to the consensual nature of customary law, it will give power to unelected traditional leaders, it will not allow people to opt-out of the system.
"These limitations infringe on a number of rights in our Constitution,” Sonke policy development and advocacy fellow, Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane, said.
The president still has to sign the TKLB and the TCB, which was passed by the National Assembly on 12 March, will now be before the National Council of Provinces to be deliberated in accordance with the rules of Parliament.
Sonke has opposed these bills since 2008 Sonke through advocacy campaigns and parliamentary submissions and will now join the ‘Stop the Bantustan Bills’ coalition in opposing them in marching on 5 June from Die Boere sqaure (Paul Kruger Square) at 7am to the Union Buildings.
Here a memorandum calling for protection of South African democracy will be handed to the President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Sonke has called for broad support for the march calls to speak out against these Bills and protect the human rights of all South Africans.