National Assembly - 02 September 2003
TUESDAY, 2 SEPTEMBER 2003
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
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The House met at 14:10.
The Speaker took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.
ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS - see col 000.
LATE START OF PROCEEDINGS
The SPEAKER: Hon members, I apologise for this late start. Please do not take it as a precedent, or a reason for constant late starts. I apologise most sincerely, it was unavoidable.
NEW MEMBERS
(Announcement)
The Speaker announced that the vacancies that had arisen as a result of the resignations of Ms N L Hlangwana, Mr N N Kekana and Mrs N W Madikizela- Mandela had been filled, in accordance with item 6(3) of Schedule 6 to the Constitution, 1996, by the nomination of Ms V Meruti, Mr P Sithole, and Ms N Daniels respectively, with effect from 4 July 2003.
The members had made and subscribed the oath or solemn affirmation in the office of the Deputy Speaker on 31 July 2003.
VICTORY OF BONGANI MVUMVU
(Draft Resolution)
Mnr C H F GREYLING: Mevrou die Speaker, ek stel sonder kennisgewing voor:
Dat die Huis -
(1) met trots kennis neem dat die 14-jarige Bongani Mvumvu van Philippi onlangs die Internasionale Ruiterkunsfederasie se wêrelddresseerkampioen in sy ouderdomsgroep geword het;
(2) van mening is dat Bongani se oorwinning nog merkwaardiger gemaak word daardeur dat hy haweloos was voordat die Mohr-familie hom in hulle sorg geneem het en hy die geleentheid gekry het om sy talent vir perdry te ontwikkel;
(3) glo dat dié jong kampioen se naam nog sinoniem met perdryprestasies gaan word en dat sy uitmuntende prestasie ‘n inspirasie vir duisende ander kinders is; en
(4) Bongani alle sterkte toewens vir die toekoms. (Translation of Afrikaans draft resolution follows.)
[Mr C H F GREYLING: Madam Speaker, I move without notice: That the House -
(1) notes with pride that 14-year-old Bongani Mvumvu of Philippi recently became the International Showjumping Federation’s world dressage champion in his age group;
(2) is of the opinion that Bongani’s victory is made even more remarkable by the fact that he was homeless before the Mohr family took him in and he was given the opportunity to develop his talent for horse- riding;
(3) believes that this young champion’s name will become synonymous with horse-riding achievements and that his excellent achievements are an inspiration for thousands of other children; and
(4) wishes Bongani well for his future.]
Agreed to.
INTERNATIONAL LITERACY WEEK
(Draft Resolution)
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Madam Speaker, I move without notice:
That the House -
(1) notes -
(a) that the decade 2003 to 2012 is United Nations Literacy Decade
under the theme "Literacy as Freedom";
(b) that the week from 1 to 8 September is International Literacy
Week under the theme "Together Developing Literacy and a Voice
for All"; and
(c) the persistence of the gender gap in education, which is
reflected by the fact that nearly two thirds of the world's
adult illiterates are women;
(2) believes that - (a) the realisation of the right to education, especially for girls, contributes to the eradication of poverty;
(b) literacy is crucial to the acquisition, by every child, youth
and adult, of essential life skills that enable them to address
the challenges they can face in life, and represents an
essential step in basic education, which is an indispensable
means for effective participation in the societies and economies
of the twenty-first century; and
(c) literacy for all is at the heart of basic education for all and
that creating literate environments and societies is essential
for achieving the goals of eradicating poverty, reducing child
mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality
and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy;
(3) conveys its support for literacy programmes, projects and campaigns undertaken by the Government, the private sector and NGOs;
(4) congratulates all learners, especially adult learners, and their educators and institutions who are participating in these programmes; and
(5) encourages all South Africans who cannot read and/or write to access the learning institutions created for literacy and by doing so position themselves to have a better life and a meaningful voice in the affairs of the country.
Agreed to.
ACHIEVEMENTS BY SOUTH AFRICAN ATHLETES AT ATHLETICS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN PARIS
(Draft Resolution)
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE OPPOSITION: Madam Speaker, I move without notice:
That the House -
(1) congratulates the South African athletics team on its achievements at the Athletics World Championships held in Paris;
(2) acknowledges South Africa’s supremacy in the high jump event, where Hestrie Cloete and Jacques Freitag each won gold medals; and
(3) commends Ockert Brits on winning the silver medal in the pole vault, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi on winning bronze in the 800 metres and the marathon team who also took the bronze medal.
Agreed to.
MOTION OF CONDOLENCE
(The late Mrs Ntombi Shope)
The DEPUTY CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Chief Whip of the Majority Party, I move the draft resolution printed in his name on the Order Paper, as follows:
That the House -
(1) notes -
(a) with a deep sense of sadness the untimely passing away of Ntombi
Shope, MP, on 13 August 2003;
(b) that Ntombi Shope was a patriot who spent all her life fighting
for the right of all South Africans to equality and justice and
that she worked tirelessly and selflessly with the people of
this country to defeat the cancer of sexism, racism, national
oppression and economic exploitation;
(c) that she contributed immensely to the birth of the new
democratic dispensation as a member of the then UDF and of the
ANC and was also a tireless worker in the ranks of the ANC
Women's League;
(d) that her courage, vision and moral stamina continue to inspire
us as we work to create a better future for all the people of
our land; and
(e) that the people of this country have lost a heroine and a
combatant for democracy, social justice and women's
emancipation; and
(2) expresses its sincere condolences to her children, friends and colleagues and to the Shope family.
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE OPPOSITION: Madam Speaker, the Democratic Alliance wishes to associate itself with the resolution and with the tribute which was paid to our late hon colleague. I had the privilege and pleasure of going on a study tour with this colleague some years ago, and I remember being particularly struck then by her courage, because at that stage she was suffering from a painful and almost disabling condition, and not a word of complaint passed her lips at all. I thought then that she was an example to many other people.
The Democratic Alliance extends very sincere condolences to her family, friends, and loved ones and to her political party.
Mrs L R MBUYAZI: Madam Speaker, the IFP conveys it heartfelt condolences to the Shope family, the ANC, friends, colleagues and all those who were close to her, especially our chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Gwen Mahlangu, and the committee at large. We served with her in that Portfolio Committee of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, and she was exemplary there.
We will miss Ntombi at the portfolio committee meetings. She was a devoted member of Parliament and she shaped that portfolio committee into what it is today. All parties are working harmoniously. May we get another Ntombi in that portfolio committee. Ntombi was cool, calm and collected.
Uphumule kahle, ntombazane. [Rest in peace, girl.]
May your soul rest in peace. I thank you.
Mr J DURAND: Madam Speaker, on behalf of the New NP I want to support the motion of condolence by the Chief Whip of the Majority Party as it appears on the Order Paper.
On behalf of the New NP I want to convey our sincere condolences to the Shope family and the ANC, the organisation which she served so loyally. The Shope family has been known over many years for their commitment to this country and its people, especially the poor.
During the June recess I had the good fortune to meet Sheila, the sister of the late Ntombi Shope. She told me about a successful programme they had introduced in the Limpopo province that assisted poor rural women to create sustainable food security. The life of the late member and her family should be an example to the members of this House of how we can serve the people who voted for us. May that be her legacy to us.
Farewell, young maiden.
Mr L M GREEN: Madam Speaker, it is with shock and great sadness that we have learned of the death of Mrs Ntombi Shope, an MP representing the ANC and a member of the NEC of the ANC Women’s League. We also learned that Mrs Shope had dedicated her entire life to a cause she sincerely believed in, namely the struggle for freedom and democracy in South Africa. Despite her busy political schedule and many demands made on her time, she strove to play an active role in the church. She was active in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and worked for the South African Council of Churches as a field worker from 1988 to 1990.
On behalf of the ACDP, I fully support the draft resolution and I wish to express our sincere condolences to her political party and all her family members, in particular her four children - Gevasa, Sheila, Victor and Nelson, who are still in mourning. May the Lord God console them in their time of mourning. I thank you.
Mr G T MADIKIZA: Madam Speaker and hon members, it is always sad to bid farewell to a fellow parliamentarian. Mrs Shope will be remembered by those she worked with as a person dedicated to her work and to the people of South Africa. We realise that Mrs Shope was a committed democrat and South African. Her passing is a loss to this institution.
The UDM would like to extend its heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Mrs Shope. Our prayers are with you during this time of bereavement, and we hope that her life’s work will leave a legacy that will console you and moderate the sense of loss that you feel at this time.
May her soul rest in peace. I thank you.
Dr C P MULDER: Mev die Speaker, dit is vir my ‘n voorreg om namens die VF ons opregte simpatie en meelewing te betuig aan die familie en vriende van die oorledene, ook aan die ANC wat een van hulle kollegas verloor het.
Dit is altyd hartseer as ons een van ons kollegas verloor en ons wil van ons kant af ons assosieer met die mosie wat voor die Raad is, maar ook ons opregte simpatie en meelewing uitspreek, en die vertroue uitspreek dat haar familie en vriende berusting sal vind en die krag sal kry om voort te gaan. Baie dankie. (Translation of Afrikaans speech follows.)
[Dr C P MULDER: Madam Speaker, it is my privilege, on behalf of the FF, to convey our sincere sympathy and condolences to the family and friends of the deceased, as well as to the ANC who have lost one of their colleagues.
It always saddens us when we lose one of our colleagues and for our past we want to identify ourselves with the motion before the House and also express our sincere sympathy and condolences, and trust that her family and friends will find acceptance and the strength to carry on. Thank you very much.]
Mr I S MFUNDISI: Madam Speaker, it is a sad day when we pay homage to one our number whose lifespan covered five decades and who served our country as a legislator for almost a decade.
We in the UCDP take solace in the fact that she walked close to her Lord, in that despite her tight schedule she could find time to be involved in the Master’s vineyard as a member of the Mothers’ Guild of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
As a political activist, Ntombi served as a member of the regional executive of the organisation - testimony to her diligence when one takes into account that the ANC is a broad church.
To celebrate her life all those who were close to her would do well to strive for the good she hankered for. We from the UCDP wish her next of kin and her party strength from above and say: That is the way of all flesh. I thank you.
Dr M S MOGOBA: Madam Speaker, the PAC expresses its heartfelt sympathies to the Shope family and to the ANC on the death of Mrs Shope.
Mrs Shope was a member of this House and served with quiet dedication and dignity. When her husband died, the PAC wrote her a letter of sympathy, little realising that she would be following shortly after.
Mrs Shope served the liberation struggle during the difficult times until the end of the struggle. She, like others, fought hard to bring freedom to many people in this country, even those who may not be aware of it. We salute her contributions to a free South Africa and her service to this first democratic Parliament of our nation. May she rest in peace.
Miss S RAJBALLY: Thank you, Madam Speaker. On behalf of the MF, I would like to take this opportunity to extend our deepest condolences on the loss of our hon member, Ntombi Shope.
Shope’s dedication to the struggle through the leadership of the ANC sparks closure of another great contributor to the success of our democracy.
Not only a comrade in the struggle, Shope also dedicated herself to the upliftment and liberation of women in her work with Fedsaw, the ANC Women’s League and as a member of Parliament. Her efforts are not only inspiring but motivational as well. She shall be greatly missed.
I once again extend our condolences on the loss of hon Shope. May she rest in peace. To her children, the ANC, the family, friends and comrades of the late Shope: May Almighty God give you the strength to overcome this difficult period. Thank you.
Mnr C AUCAMP: Agb Speaker, persoonlik het ek nie vir wyle Ntombi Shope goed geken nie. Tog by die nagaan van haar curriculum vitae, het twee ooreenkomste my opgeval: Sy is in dieselfde jaar as ek gebore, wat my onder die besef gebring het van die kortstondigheid van hierdie lewe, maar ook dat sy in die fleur van haar lewe dood is. Tweedens, haar hele lewensiklus is begin en voltooi in Tzaneen, in die Limpopo provinsie. Tzaneen was my eerste gemeente waar ek vir sewe jaar gearbei het - wat my betref die mooiste plek in Suid-Afrika.
Wat verder opvallend is, is dat sy haar lewe daaraan gewy het om haar
kwalifikasies te verbeter. So het sy eers op 29-jarige leeftyd haar matriek
voltooi en daarna deur private studie nog drie kwalifikasies verwerf. So
ver dit duidelik is, het sy haar lewe gewy aan onbaatsugtige diens aan haar
mense, aanvanklik as aktivis en na 1994 as politikus. In dié opsig het sy
n navolgenswaardige voorbeeld gestel, naamlik dat die sin van lewe geleë
is in diens aan jou medemens, jou gemeenskap, jou kerk en jou land. n Mens
kan in die besonder dink aan die woorde van onse Here Jesus: ``Dis saliger
om te gee as om te ontvang.’’
Ons meegevoel gaan aan die ANC, en die talle organisasies waar sy met toewyding gedien het. Waar haar eggenoot ook reeds oorlede is, dink ons in die besonder aan haar ses kinders wat alleen agtergelaat is. Ons bede is dat ons Hemelse Vader, wat nie een van sy kinders as wees agterlaat nie, hulle ook sal versorg en vertroos.
Die Nasionale Aksie ondersteun hierdie mosie van meegevoel met die heengaan van wyle agb Ntombi Shope. Dankie. (Translation of Afrikaans speech follows.)
[Mr C AUCAMP: Hon Speaker, I personally did not know the late Ntombi Shope well. However, in looking at her curriculum vitae, two similarities struck me: She was born in the same year as me, which made me realise how short this life is, but also that she died in her prime. Secondly, her life cycle began and ended in Tzaneen in the Limpopo province. Tzaneen was my first congregation where I worked for seven years - the most beautiful place in South Africa, as far as I am concerned.
What is also striking is that she dedicated her life to improving her qualifications. She only completed her matric at the age of 29 and after that obtained three qualifications through private study. As far as one can see, she dedicated her life to selfless service to her people, initially as an activist and after 1994 as a politician. In this regard she set an example worth following, namely that the meaning of life lies in service to your fellow man, your community, your church and your country. One can think in particular of the words of our Lord Jesus: ``It is more blessed to give than to receive.’’
Our condolences go to the ANC and the numerous organisations where she served with dedication. As her spouse is also already deceased, we think in particular of her six children who have been left alone. Our prayer is that our Heavenly Father, who does not leave one of His children orphaned, will also care for and comfort them.
The National Action supports this motion of condolence on the death of the late hon Ntombi Shope. Thank you.]
Ms T E MILLIN: Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, hon members, the IAM associates itself with the draft resolution before the House and with the sentiments expressed in memory of the late hon member of this House, Mrs Ntombi Shope. We wish to extend our sincerest condolences to all her ANC colleagues, her family and friends in their sad loss. May her soul rest in peace. Thank you.
Mr L N DIALE: Thank you, Madam Speaker. Ministers and colleagues, today we pay tribute to Ntombi Shope, one of the indefatigable heroes of our struggle for democracy and social justice.
Her history of activism spread out over a wide range of political and social involvement. In 1982, at the University of the North, she served Azaso as a branch secretary. In 1983 she became branch organiser of Fedsaw and in the same year she served as a member of the interim committee of the UDF in the then Transvaal. The list is endless. However, her political home throughout her life was the ANC and the ANC Women’s League, through which she pursued, together with the majority of the people of this country, the goal of creating a democratic, nonracial, nonsexist, prosperous and united South Africa.
Ntombi leaves behind the legacy of a freedom fighter. She leaves behind an immense contribution to the destruction of apartheid, to the destruction of the policy whose basic perspective and practice was discriminatory against the majority of people and a crime against humanity. She leaves behind a noble tradition of a sense of humanity - love - a tradition contributing to the obligatory effort of uniting all people, of formulating and implementing the reconstruction and development programme, the integrated sustainable rural development programme, social grants and many more.
Ntombi was born and grew up in a country whose regime was bent on forcing the majority of its citizens to live life under inhuman and degrading conditions. All avenues to development and to a better life were shut to them. To the majority was allocated substandard education, substandard health and welfare resources. Cheap labour policies and employment segregation ensured that theirs would be a life without skills, which left skills deliberately concentrated in white hands.
To this sad history, Ntombi responded by joining the liberation movement so that she could, together with the majority in this country, put her shoulder to the wheel and be part of the collective effort to deliver to all a truly free and just society.
As we bid our final and proud farewell to a life led in the service of the people, we the people, the women and children of our country, bow in salute to the fallen heroine of our people. And as we do so, we reaffirm our commitment to the principles she fought and stood for throughout her life. May we convey the message humbly to her, plead with her to rest in peace, knowing that those she leaves behind will continue to work with all the people of our country. We shall concentrate all our physical, mental, spiritual strengths until the day when all our people shall live in a truly free, democratic, nonracial, nonsexist and prosperous society.
We share the grief and the pain of the Shope family, her children and friends, and we offer our condolences and extend the support and sympathy of the House. I thank you.
The SPEAKER: Hon members, I take it there are no objections to the motion. The Deputy Speaker and I wish to associate ourselves with the sentiments that have been expressed here. Ntombi has been a friend to both of us and a colleague for many, many years. I will now ask members please to rise in memory of the hon Mrs Shope.
The condolences which have been expressed in this House will be conveyed to the Shope family.
Debate concluded.
Motion agreed to, all members standing.
AD HOC COMMITTEE ON GENERAL INTELLIGENCE LAWS AMENDMENT BILL
(Draft Resolution)
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Madam Speaker, I move the motion printed in my name on the Order Paper as follows:
That the House ratifies the decision by the Speaker to establish an Ad Hoc Committee on General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill in terms of Rule 214 (See Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports, 22 August 2003, p 831).
Agreed to.
ELECTION OF EXECUTIVE OF ANC WOMEN'S LEAGUE
(Member's Statement) Mrs M M MALUMISE (ANC): Madam Speaker, the ANC congratulates the ANC Women's League on holding a successful fourth national conference from 28 to 31 August 2003.
We congratulate the newly elected leadership of the ANC Women’s League: President Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Deputy President Mavivi Myakayaka- Manzini, Secretary-General Bathabile Dlamini, Deputy Secretary-General Kiki Rhweqana and Treasurer-General Bertha Gxowa, as well as other members of the NEC. We salute the ANC Women’s League for its proud history of mobilising women into the ranks of the national liberation movement, placing issues of the emancipation of women on the agenda of the ANC and giving leadership and organisational expression to the struggle for gender equality in South Africa.
The ANC Women’s League has committed itself to leading the building of a multiracial progressive women’s movement, capable of uniting all South African women around programmes that address the question of gender-based oppression. These programmes will include programmes addressing violence against women; combating disease, including HIV and Aids; the economic empowerment of women; child abuse; and poverty eradication.
The ANC Women’s League has also dedicated itself to working for an overwhelming ANC victory in the 2004 elections in the belief that the ANC has for more than 90 years represented the aspirations of our people, and continues to embody our best hope for a better life for all South Africans, women in particular.
Viva the ANC Women’s League! Viva! [Applause.]
RACE DEBACLE IN SOUTH AFRICAN RUGBY
(Member's Statement)
Mnr T D LEE (DA): Mev die Speaker, Geo Cronjé is die enigste persoon wat met eer uit die bewerings rondom die rassedebakel gekom het. Hy het baie beheersd en waardig opgetree. Hy is onregverdiglik verneder en verguis. Ten spyte van die feit dat hy as gevolg van die aantygings sy plek in die Springbokspan kwyt is, het hy nogtans die span sterkte toegewens en trou aan Suid-Afrikaanse rugby gesweer. [Tussenwerpsels.]
Sarvu se ondeurdagte optrede was uiters ongelukkig. Op grond van hulle optrede, waarop baie Suid-Afrikaners vertrou het, het die mediasirkus begin. Om agterna uit te vind dat mens nie Sarvu kan vertrou nie, was vir ons almal ‘n skok. Enige bewering van rassisme, veral soos deur Sarvu verklaar, is van ‘n baie ernstige aard en kan nie geïgnoreer word nie. Soos wat die DA versoek het, verg dit ‘n spoedige en deeglike ondersoek. Ons het ook daarop aangedring, soos wat ek daardie dag herhaaldelik op die radio gedoen het, dat Geo Cronjé die geleentheid gebied moes word om sy kant van die saak te stel. Ek dank u. [Tussenwerpsels.] (Translation of Afrikaans member’s statement follows.)
[Mr T D LEE (DA): Madam Speaker, Geo Cronjé is the only person who made it through the allegations surrounding the racial debacle with honour. He acted in a very collected manner and with dignity. He was unfairly humiliated and denigrated. In spite of the fact that he lost his place in the Springbok rugby team as a result of these allegations, he nevertheless wished the team good luck and swore allegiance to South African rugby. [Interjections.]
Sarvu’s ill-considered conduct was really unfortunate. On the basis of their actions, on which many South Africans relied, the media circus commenced. To find out afterwards that one cannot trust Sarvu was a shock to all of us. Any allegation of racism, especially like that made by Sarvu, is of a very serious nature and cannot be ignored. As the DA requested, it requires a timeous and thorough investigation. We also insisted, as I repeatedly did on the radio that day, that Geo Cronjé should have been afforded the opportunity to put his side of the case. I thank you. [Interjections.]]
MINIMUM WAGE STIPULATION USED TO RETRENCH WORKERS
(Member's Statement) Mr N S MIDDLETON (IFP): Madam Speaker, it is becoming a South African trend for farmers to use the minimum wage stipulation by the Department of Labour to retrench workers, and sometimes even evict them from their farms when they ask for the minimum wage. It has been reported that about 2 000 farmworkers have lost their jobs and homes merely for asking for the minimum wage.
This has mostly affected workers in the Limpopo province. It has also been reported that the children of these farmworkers have had to drop out of farm schools following the eviction of their parents. This situation is imposing hunger and suffering on both the workers and their children.
We believe that this treatment meted out to fellow human beings by those who have the means to alleviate their plight, is unfair. The proper course for these farmers to adopt is to apply for exemption from the provisions, as described in the sectoral determination. Instead, the farmers give the jobs to immigrants from Zimbabwe and Mozambique who are prepared to work for slave wages. We are not against immigrants getting jobs, but we take exception to their being employed at the expense of our fellow South Africans. I thank you. [Applause.]
The SPEAKER: I call on the ANC, but before you begin, hon member, I would appeal to you please to stay with the microphone. It is not the equipment that is at fault. We are trying to identify the microphones. So please, if you do not get a sound immediately, just stay there. Do not move.
SOCIAL GRANT BACKPAY FOR PENSIONER
(Member's Statement)
Ms L M T XINGWANA (ANC): Madam Speaker, 83-year-old Elsie Schoeman, a social welfare pensioner from Stutterheim, received backpay of R26 000 from the Department of Social Development on 12 August 2003. This was after Mrs Schoeman had mistakenly been declared deceased by the Department of Home Affairs in 1986. The ANC believes that this deprived Mrs Schoeman of her constitutional right to a social grant. We commend Government for having identified and speedily rectified this error. The intervention by our democratic Government is proof of our commitment to improving the lives of our people in our resolve to roll back the frontiers of poverty. I thank you. [Applause.]
DA COMPLAINT AGAINST MINISTER - REPORT OF PUBLIC PROTECTOR
(Member's Statement)
Mr J DURAND (New NP): Madam Speaker, the alleged spin on information in reports on Iraq has made international headlines recently, and even led to the resignation of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s media man Alistair Campbell.
In similar fashion the Official Opposition has perfected the art of putting a spin on information to grab the headlines. So often we read of threats by the DA to institute proceedings in some or other watchdog body. This often is nothing more than hot air and soundbite politics.
A recent example clearly illustrates this point. The hon Douglas Gibson, with lots of fanfare and media hype laid a complaint against a Minister with the Public Protector. However, in this report issued by the Public Protector clearing the said Minister, the Public Protector stated:
Mr Gibson, the complainant in the matter, was invited to share with the Public Protector any further views he might have had on the matter referred to in this report.
What the New NP finds shocking is that the hon Gibson, true to DA style, did not follow through, and I quote:
Unfortunately, although he accepted the invitation, he failed to honour it or to apologise.
The New NP calls on the hon Gibson to join the SAA’s campaign to weigh passengers so that this House can establish the real weight of hot air. I thank you. [Laughter.] [Applause.] LAND AFFAIRS - EFFECTS OF POLICY ON VALUE OF LAND
(Member's Statement)
Ms C DUDLEY (ACDP): Madam Speaker, whatever the intention, it is the opinion of the ACDP that one thing is sure: in destroying the value of land, agriculture is destroyed, and food security becomes a distant dream.
Pending legislation giving the Minister powers to expropriate land without a court order puts Government squarely on track to ensure that previously disadvantaged South Africans become the proud owners of land with no value. New and old farmers will now have liabilities instead of assets with disastrous consequences for all. We have only to look at Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe to see the results of this sort of folly. The power to take all the land those governments wanted did not lead to prosperity or productivity, but instead you cannot even give away the land now.
When land has no value, no-one can produce. There is no interest and, ultimately, no food. High land prices are Government’s excuse for legislation to expropriate land, yet land prices in South Africa are amongst the lowest in the world, thanks to the eroding power of unwise political statements such as these. Without good land prices farmers have no collateral to access finance for production and there is no incentive for property owners to invest in agriculture.
Perceived property rights are the reason for the agricultural stability until now, but unwise government action and statements are eroding the value of land and private property, sabotaging the wealth and future wealth of the nation.
The ACDP supports the Department of Land Affairs in its endeavours to find fair, reasonable solutions to issues surrounding land restitution and of course agrees that the co-operation of farmers is essential to land reform. Land restitution, however, is a sensitive issue that requires a change of attitude across the spectrum. It is therefore not helpful to single out one specific sector to pay for all apartheid’s injustices. Vital to the issue is not simply acquisition and availability of land, but how the land is used.
South Africa is one of seven net food exporters in the world in spite of shallow soil and low rainfall, due to the tremendous skills accumulated agriculturally and industrially. This major source of foreign exchange is an asset which should be valued and protected. It is counterproductive to target farmers with accusations that they are not co-operating and threatening to take their land instead of creating opportunities and support for emerging farmers while also valuing efforts of existing commercial farmers that ensure wealth creation and not a poverty trap for all. Thank you.
EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN - SCHOLARSHIPS FOR FURTHER STUDIES
(Member's Statement)
Ms N S MTSWENI (ANC): Madam Speaker, Busisiwe Mzoneli, a secondary school teacher from a rural area in KwaZulu-Natal, flew to the UK last week after obtaining a scholarship from the Ford Foundation to study teaching methods for travel and tourism at Bournemouth University.
The reality that women constitute the majority of people who are poor in our country and also that they make up a larger part of the unskilled, places an obligation on all of us to focus our programmes on women empowerment and emancipation. It is in the light of this that we applaud the Ford Foundation for making this important contribution to improve the lives of the people. This served to emphasise the critically important role of public-private partnerships in changing people’s lives for the better.
We call upon all other business entities and organisations to put their shoulder to the wheel and contribute to the goal of creating a better life for all our people. Thank you. [Applause.]
ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION AGAINST DEPUTY PRESIDENT ZUMA
(Member's Statement)
Mr B H HOLOMISA (UDM): Madam Speaker and hon members, the UDM calls on the Government to immediately issue an ultimatum to the directors of Thales in France, who have been implicated in allegations of corruption involving the Deputy President, to immediately co-operate with the Scorpions or face the suspension of their company’s participation in the arms deal.
In the meantime we need to ask: For how long can we have a person occupy the office of the Deputy President when structures from the same Government have publicly stated that they have evidence that he is corrupt? Ironically, we hear ruling party spokespersons proclaiming that Deputy President Zuma has been exonerated. It is quite simply the confusion of the century.
We urge the President to clarify this confusion. The Ministry of Justice says they have evidence that Deputy President Zuma is corrupt, while the Minister in The Office of the President, the hon Essop Pahad, is continuously attacking the opposition parties and the media. Are we perhaps being blamed for observing that the emperor is naked, as has been published by the Ministry of Justice itself? I thank you.
LEVELS OF CRIME IN SOUTH AFRICA
(Member's Statement)
Mrs M A SEECO (UCDP): Madam Speaker, there is no doubt that South Africa is a good place to live in. The beauty of the countryside enthrals each onlooker. Such beauty would be seen much better in this season of spring.
The only fly in the ointment is the high level of crime. Not a day goes by without hearing about chilling and horrifying reports of crime. It is unthinkable how a criminal or criminals can gain access to residences of Cabinet Ministers. Why is the Minister so asleep? It is chilling to imagine what could have happened to the Ministers if they had woken up and confronted the intruders. Without putting the blame at anybody’s door, the police will have to hone their skills in their efforts to combat crime. Criminals always tend to be a step ahead. Only on Friday criminals got to the secure burglar-proofed residence of Mr Mere Manyaapelo in Maja-Mantsho, Mafikeng in North West, scaled the roof to remove tiles, dropped into the house and stabbed Mr Manyaapelo, leaving his mutilated body in a bath full of water. The police did their utmost in a short space of time, and before the end of the weekend arrests had been effected.
We commend the men and women in blue for the promptness they displayed in this particular case and call on the Government to tighten the screws when the perpetrators are found guilty. Criminals should not be allowed to spoil our lives and in some circles there are already hints to the effect that these crime levels may derail our efforts for the 2010 World Cup bid. I thank you.
MINISTER ESSOP PAHAD'S CONDUCT IN REGARD TO ARMS DEAL INVESTIGATION
(Member's Statement)
The LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION (DA): Madam Speaker, ``Who do you think you are to criticise the executive and the President?’’ Those are the words in which Minister Essop Pahad apparently demanded an answer of ANC members of Scopa. [Interjections.]
This is how Minister Pahad began to undermine the investigation into the arms deal and to strongarm Parliament. This is how his party began to cover up evidence of alleged corruption. [Interjections.]
This accusation does not come from the opposition. It comes from Minister Pahad’s own ANC colleague, Andrew Feinstein, writing on Sunday of his own experiences under the ANC in Scopa.
Today, Minister Pahad continues to play the ``bad cop,’’ to use Mr Feinstein’s words, by making hysterical charges about media conspiracies and the opposition, instead of dealing with the issues and demanding accountability of people in Government, including the Deputy President.
South Africa is tired of these bully-boy tactics. Even Minister Pahad’s own ANC colleagues are apparently tired of them. So, we say to him: Who do you think you are, Minister Pahad, to drag this nation’s democracy, this Constitution and this representative National Assembly down into the mud?
It is time for Parliament to stand up to this blustering and this bullying, and to open a nonpartisan, comprehensive inquiry which once and for all will reveal what happened under the arms deal, and who is responsible for all the allegations, the corruption and the misdemeanours which are now in the public arena. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
EFFECT OF LEGISLATION ON ACCESS TO INFORMATION ON PRIVATE SECTOR
(Member's Statement)
Mr M V NGEMA (IFP): Madam Speaker, the Promotion of Access to Information Act is one of the cornerstones of the free, open and democratic society that has been created in South Africa since 1994. The right of our citizens to access to information held by the state and the private sector for the exercising and protection of any of the rights enshrined in our Bill of Rights is in itself an individual right associated with a democratic constitutional dispensation.
Among other things, the Act provided that all affected parties had to submit manuals to the Human Rights Commission by August this year. These manuals have to include information about a variety of aspects relating to the business of a private-sector company, including what information it holds and how access can be gained to it.
Large companies with hundreds or thousands of employees have not really had much of a problem meeting the deadline for submission of the manuals to the HRC. In many instances the requirements of the Act have created a cottage industry of lawyers and consultants who prepare the manuals for a substantial fee which a large company can easily absorb into its operating budget.
The situation has not been the same for small businesses. In many instances these companies were not aware of their obligations under the Act. Many did not know how to go about dealing with their obligations. Others simply did not have the money to pay consultants or to absorb the costs of printing the manuals in the Gazette. Rumours of heavy fines … [Time expired.]
COMMEMORATION OF 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF UNITED DEMOCRATIC FRONT
(Member's Statement)
Mr D A A OLIPHANT (ANC): Madam Speaker, on 20 August 2003 the ANC commemorated the 20th anniversary of the United Democratic Front. The UDF was founded by the liberation movement at a critical juncture in our struggle when many people’s organisations had been banned and when the experiences of the people signalled the need for a broad front of anti- apartheid organisations.
The UDF united the masses in political action, benefiting from and reinforcing the work of underground structures, armed combatants and the global anti-apartheid movement. Under the slogan ``UDF unites, apartheid divides’’, the UDF brought together organisations of women, youth, communities, workers, professionals, religious communities, anticonscription campaigners and others across class, colour, religious and other divides in the struggle against colonialism and apartheid, and for the creation of a united, nonracial, nonsexist, democratic and prosperous society. This remains the strategic objective of the national liberation movement led by the ANC.
We dip our banners in memory of those cadres and activists who paid the supreme sacrifice for the conditions we are privileged to enjoy today, and therefore we want to reiterate our statement that the tide has turned and steadily but surely a better life is becoming a reality. I thank you. [Applause.]
ALLEGED RACIAL INCIDENT AT RUGBY TRAINING CAMP
(Member's Statement)
Mnr S SIMMONS (Nuwe NP): Mevrou die Speaker, die beweerde rassevoorval in rugby waarin Geo Cronjé en Quinton Davids se name genoem is en die hantering van die voorval doen die sport en alle ondersteuners ‘n oneer aan. Dit plaas nie net ‘n vraagteken oor rasseverhoudings in hierdie sport nie, maar ook oor die breë Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskap. Weens die agtergrond van die betrokke spelers is aanvalle ook op sekere gemeenskappe geloods.
Hierdie onsmaaklike voorval behoort tot op die been oopgevlek te word omdat dit twee spelers van internasionale gehalte se loopbane in gevaar stel. As die feite nie vasgestel word nie, sal dit net die indruk by die publiek skep dat die hele voorval onder die mat ingevee word. Vandag het die span se kommunikasiehoof bedank omdat hy sê hy nie deel van ‘n groep kan wees wat vooroordele verduur nie. Volgens die redes vir sy bedanking is dit duidelik dat die hele storie oor die voorval nog nie bekend is nie.
Die Nuwe NP doen ‘n beroep op die Minister van Sport en Ontspanning om ‘n onafhanklike ondersoekpaneel aan te wys om die saak en die hantering daarvan te ondersoek. Ondanks die bewerings wat gemaak is en die hantering daarvan, steun die Nuwe NP die Springbokspan wat aan die Wêreldbeker- rugbytoernooi in Australië gaan deelneem. Die Nuwe NP se bloed is groen! [Tussenwerpsels.] (Translation of Afrikaans member’s statement follows.)
[Mr S SIMMONS (New NP): Madam Speaker, the alleged racial incident in rugby in which the names of Geo Cronjé and Quinton Davies were mentioned, as well as the handling of the incident, dishonours the sport and all its supporters. It puts a question mark, not only over race relations within this sport but also over the broader South African community. Owing to the backgrounds of the respective players, attacks were also launched on certain communities.
This distasteful incident needs to be examined in great depth since it jeopardises the careers of two players of international stature. If the facts are not established, this will only create the impression among the public that the whole incident is being swept under the carpet. Today the team’s head of communications resigned because he felt that he could not be part of a group that tolerated prejudices. From the reasons for his resignation it is evident that the whole story about the incident has not yet been divulged.
The New NP calls on the Minister of Sport and Recreation to appoint an independent panel to investigate the issue, and the way it was handled. Despite the allegations made and the way they were handled, the New NP supports the Springbok team that is going to participate in the World Cup Rugby Tournament in Australia. The blood of the New NP is green! [Interjections.]] LAND AFFAIRS - EFFECTS OF POLICY ON VALUE OF LAND
(Minister's Response)
The MINISTER OF DEFENCE: Madam Speaker, with regard to the question of the value of land in this country, I think that members of the House should not create unnecessary confusion.
There is nothing in the policy of Government today which contributes to the reduction of the value of land. Every one of the restitution cases begins with negotiations with the individuals who bought expropriated land under the old regime, and those negotiations lead to consensus on the price of the land that is going to be returned to the owners.
It is only in extremely exceptional cases, where some individuals resist even such a reasonable approach of negotiating and compensating them for the land which they bought under the horrible and inhumane policies of the old government, that we then resort to expropriation.
There can be no alternative to returning land to its rightful owners, and where individuals are not prepared to co-operate with this most reasonable approach, it cannot be said that Government is contributing to the reduction of the value of land.
I think the UCDP must avoid making statements which are dangerous, because they are not sensitive to history. I know of no land that was expropriated but was not made available to one section of the population. In the whole of the Free State and the whole of the old Transvaal, when land was expropriated, Africans were driven off that land and it was given to whites.
Today, we seek to correct that. It is not possible to take land from blacks who were not given land by the old regime. You can’t. There is no land to take from blacks and give to somebody else.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Your time has expired, hon Minister.
The MINISTER OF DEFENCE: That was the first question. I’ve got the second question to deal with.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Okay.
MINIMUM WAGE STIPULATION USED TO RETRENCH WORKERS
(Minister's response)
The MINISTER OF DEFENCE: Madam Speaker, on the question of minimum wages, only last week we had a most successful and fruitful meeting with AgriSA, dealing, among other things, with some of the issues such as this minimum wage, and I must report to the House that AgriSA was extremely appreciative of the fact …
Mr D H M GIBSON: Madam Speaker, on a point of order: The hon Minister is enlightening the House, but it’s on matters which have nothing to do with his portfolio and, as far as I’m concerned, nothing to do with the cluster in which he serves. [Interjections.] The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Hon Minister, are you responding in the context of your cluster?
The MINISTER OF DEFENCE: Yes, indeed, Madam Speaker.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Okay. Please proceed, then.
The MINISTER OF DEFENCE: A lot of the restitution that is happening today is being dealt with between myself and Agriculture and, in any event, the executive has got collective responsibility for all the …
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Hon Minister, on that issue, the Rules that guide the statements by members of Parliament are explicit on the issue that Ministers must please respond on their portfolios. However, if it is a matter within the cluster that you are part of, the Minister is then within his rights.
The MINISTER OF DEFENCE: I think I started by clarifying that issue, Madam Speaker. If Mr Gibson follows the question of land restitution, he’ll know that one of the key issues in which we are involved in Defence, is this issue.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon Minister, could you please now respond to the second question? Continue with your response to the second question.
The MINISTER OF DEFENCE: May I now start on my two minutes?
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon Minister, please continue, because you had started.
The MINISTER OF DEFENCE: Well, to make my input very short with regard to this matter, the largest portion of South Africa’s farming community has expressed itself as very happy with the approach to minimum wages. They say they appreciate that this minimum wage improves the living conditions of their workers and, therefore, helps in the fight against crime.
If there is any member of the House who has a complaint about this issue with regard to farmworkers, I invite them to the next meeting when we meet with AgriSA and other farming organisations.
ALLEGED RACIAL INCIDENT AT RUGBY TRAINING CAMP
(Minister's Response)
The MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION: Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker. Well, I think, first of all, that my colleague is quite correct. We take collective responsibility. More so, he is in the same cluster. Lastly, he is a farmer himself. [Laughter.]
So, for my past, let me respond quickly to the New NP. My appeal, first of all, is to all South Africans. The appeal I am making is that we should become rational in dealing with this issue. It is of no use to just jump up here, like Donald Lee, and say whatever you want to say. It’s not going to help the situation. Allegations of racism are not to be treated lightly, whatever their origins are. We should also add that our international and national players in all our codes of sport should be above reproach and should be of the highest standing in our communities. Therefore, we will not, in sport, tolerate any alleged racism rearing its ugly head. We will not tolerate that in sport.
Let me finish by saying that the proposal that has been made by the New NP is a very good one, and I will take it up after I’ve met with rugby this afternoon. They’ll give me a report and I’ll take it up with them, that more investigations need to be made into this whole issue.
I do hope that our focus now will be on the team preparation. All South Africans, I hope, will give their full support to the cream of our rugby, as it leaves our shores to do battle in the World Cup. That’s what our focus should be on at the moment. Thank you. [Applause.]
MINISTER ESSOP PAHAD'S CONDUCT IN REGARD TO ARMS DEAL INVESTIGATION
(Minister's Response)
The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Madam Speaker, I see that the hon Leader of the Opposition is no longer here. I was not intending to bully him and there was no particular need for him to run away. I can’t, as Government, really explain why the opposition should feel bullied by Minister Essop Pahad, who is such a gentleman! [Interjections.] However, if they are hurt by that, that seems to be its politics.
I think the Government has been quite clear on its position. At all times we have allowed the due processes to take place with regard to the arms deal, and we will continue to do so.
The problem with the DA or the Democratic Party - I forget what they are - is that they have no respect for any of the organisations and structures set up by this Constitution. If the finding is inconvenient to them, they want to come and make more allegations in Parliament. Why don’t you just sit and wait for the process to be conducted and see what the outcome is for a change? [Interjections.]
BROAD-BASED BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT BILL
(Second Reading debate)
The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Madam Deputy Speaker, colleagues, the heads of the various Council of Trade and Industry institutions that are with us today and will be central in implementing this Bill, the members of the task team who helped me so greatly in the last months and have assisted so effectively: The tabling of this Bill in Parliament today is another important step in the economic revolution that the new democratic South Africa has been engaged in since 1994.
The legacy of apartheid leaves us with particularly difficult challenges in the development of new enterprises and increasing the depth of participation by black persons in the economy. By restricting skill development, by expropriating land, wealth and assets, and by restricting business opportunities for the majority, colonialism and apartheid laid barren the fields of wealth creation and opportunity for that majority.
Structurally such an economy could never prosper. To grow and develop our country requires an economy that can meet the needs of all our citizens, our people and their enterprises, in a sustainable manner. This will only be possible if our economy builds on the full potential of all persons and communities across the length and breadth of this country.
Starting with the RDP, we have systematically addressed this legacy. However, it became evident that we had to address more systematically the participation of black people in the mainstream of economic activity, and within the corporations and enterprises, including co-operative forms of enterprise, in this economy. This realisation led to the formation of the Black Economic Empowerment Council, and their path-breaking report. The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill is the outcome of this process.
A policy approach for empowerment is complex and has to balance many economic processes and forces, not all of which make empowerment easy. After careful consideration the framework of the BEE policy was released by the DTI on behalf of Government on 19 March 2003, and Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry adopted the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill on 20 August 2003. After public hearings we have been able to make a number of important and constructive amendments, which I am sure Dr Davis and others will cover in their addresses.
The Bill is in essence enabling legislation that creates a framework for the development and implementation of black economic empowerment policy. It does this by the important mechanisms of the advisory council, a strategy document, codes of good practice and the publication of transformation charters. This is an innovative response to what will be an important learning and developmental process that cannot be held within the tight confines of detailed legislation and regulation, but where there is also a need for more certainty and clarity of purpose.
In the hearings there was a concern that the empowerment process must not have too narrow a base of beneficiaries. This is a concern that the Government shares, but we have to balance this against the fact that the Bill cannot embrace all the programmes and actions introduced by Government to redress the inequity that was historically imposed on the majority of our people. I believe that the amendments find this balance. The Bill has been amended to ensure that the law targets a broader spectrum of beneficiaries.
The concept of empowerment is not one-dimensional and is a process that should result in both higher levels of black ownership as well as the reduction in income inequalities. It should result in effective black participation in the economy, reflected in both a broadening of the entrepreneurial base and increased participation in managerial, professional and other skilled occupations.
The BEE process will therefore include elements of human resource development, employment equity, enterprise development, preferential procurement, as well as investment, ownership and control of enterprises and economic assets. I believe that the objectives of the Bill will define the ambit of endeavour of BEE, and make it clear that the facilitation of economic possibilities in urban, rural and local communities is part of the concept of a broad-based empowerment process.
As indicated earlier, this Bill is innovative in that it essentially provides the enabling environment for the implementation of a strategy. The efficacy of the strategy lies in the ability of Government to use its own economic position to shape the behaviour of the private sector in a transparent and co-ordinated manner towards certain objectives. In doing this, it works with the market and not against it, but in doing so it achieves objectives that the market would not achieve or would certainly achieve too slowly.
There is now a realisation that we will not have growth and development if we cannot ensure that all our citizens are active and meaningful participants in the economy, and have equal opportunity for such participation. This allows a common purpose around which the state intervenes in a developmental manner to ensure that the larger collective benefits of growth and development will be generated and shared by all.
This developmental and growth-orientated approach is and must be fundamental to our understanding of the process and how we implement it. BEE is not an imposition, but the opening of opportunities that the market itself would have inadequately realised. The new Act provides the instruments to implement, monitor and sensibly adjust by consultation as the process unfolds.
The instruments are the establishment of the Black Economic Empowerment Advisory Council as an advisory body to allow for stakeholder participation in the formulation, monitoring and implementation of Black Economic Empowerment policy; the ability of the Minister to issue codes of good practice on black economic empowerment that must also be taken into account by organs of state; and the ability of the Minister to issue guidelines for the development of transformation charters by different sectors of the economy. Such charters would need to include specific mechanisms to achieve BEE objectives in that sector, in a comprehensive and appropriate manner, as well as provide measurement indicators and targets.
The Bill also empowers the Minister to publish in the Gazette the transformation charter for a particular sector of the economy. This is in essence the scorecard approach that has been adopted. The publication of the strategy document provides a flexible but authoritative vehicle for articulating policy and guiding public and private sector participation in BEE.
Since the publishing of the strategy document in March we have already seen many developments which confirm the wisdom of allowing for a stable but evolving approach. Different forms of ownership participation have emerged. As the scorecard approach unfolds, so the question of how this works over time arises, and we have had to address the varied corporate strategies of large multinationals through to small family-owned enterprises. All have to be treated within the same framework but with flexibility that accords with their economic positions.
We have a very diverse economy and a very sophisticated one at that. The need for the public sector to be more uniform in its approach has emerged strongly. In all this we continuously have to balance the need for certainty with that of being flexible in the face of commercial and financial good sense. In the financing of BEE there have also been new approaches. As we indicated in the strategy document, financing of BEE must also deal with some of the macro aspects of the capital market. This requires us to co-ordinate our efforts and ensure that we have the right products for the right purpose.
The IDC has done good work on this and new products will become available. In the DTI we have had a fresh look at the National Empowerment Fund and it, too, will make certain new products available that will complement those of the IDC and the private sector. I am pleased to announce that as of yesterday Sydney Maree has agreed to take up the position of acting CEO of the National Empowerment Fund to complete this process.
We are therefore confident that we can manage a process that leverages in private sector financing in a manner that is sustainable and that promotes growth and stable capital markets. I believe that within the private sector we now have a sense of common purpose that this is a common task that we must all embark upon for our common good. There has been a flood of approaches and initiatives that Government has been asked to comment on.
Multinational companies as a whole, and often by their national origin, have considered BEE, and are making constructive and exciting inputs. The Oppenheimer family has had the courage of their convictions and has made concrete proposals in public to advance the process, the so-called Brenthurst Initiative. As one would expect and welcome in South Africa, there have been intense debates on the politics and efficacy of Government’s approach.
I want to stress once again that what drives our policy is that equity and participation by all are the real drivers of growth and development. It is growth and development that are the final nail in the coffin of apartheid and the first in building a new and prosperous democracy. Hard work and goodwill are required to build a strong, nonracial, nonsexist, equitable and sustainable economy. There are no magic formulae or quick-fixes; only the determination and vision of our people.
I would like to express the gratitude of the Government to the Black Economic Empowerment Council, chaired by Cyril Ramaphosa, for their pioneering work and commitment to this worthy cause. Many have continued to work hard - and they sit up there today - in the task team to which the DTI and Government owe a great deal. I would like to thank the portfolio committee under Dr Rob Davies, which once again has done its work with professionalism and insight. I really don’t know what the DTI would have done without such a fine committee.
Finally, thanks from the Deputy Minister and myself to the team in the DTI, led by Deputy Director-General Lionel October and Bulisiwe Buthelezi, for their tireless and intellectually thorough commitment to the purpose of this Bill.
I believe we are adding another crucial dimension to the programmes of economic transformation and restructuring that will ensure our future. I commend this Bill to the House. Thank you. [Applause.]
Ms F HAJAIG: Deputy Speaker, Minister Erwin, Cabinet members, comrades and colleagues, it gives me great pleasure to introduce the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill to you. I would like to dedicate this input to my very dear comrade, Ntombi Shope, who was a member of our committee and was very passionate about empowerment for the disadvantaged, especially black women. We shall miss you, Ntombi.
Before I outline the objectives and the architecture of the Bill, I think it is in order to begin with the historical context, so that one can fully understand the rationale for this Bill.
Apartheid systematically and purposefully restricted the majority of South Africans from meaningful participation in the economy. The assets of millions were directly or indirectly destroyed, and access to skills and to self-employment was racially restricted. The accumulation process under apartheid confined the creation of wealth to a racial minority, and imposed underdevelopment on black communities. The result is an economic structure that today still excludes the vast majority of South Africans. It is crucial to understand the magnitude of what took place in our past, in order to understand why we need to act together as a nation to bring about an economic transformation in the interests of all South Africans. Despite the economic successes since 1994 and a broad range of state policy, strategy and programme interventions aimed at overcoming economic disparities, entrenched inequalities continue to characterise the economy and act as a deterrent to growth, economic development, employment creation and poverty eradication.
Vast racial and gender inequalities in the distribution of and access to wealth, income, skills and employment persist. As a consequence our economy continues to perform below its full potential. More than just an economic imperative, the deracialisation and engendering of our economy is a moral requirement in keeping with the values and principles of equity enshrined in our Constitution. We will no longer be just hewers of wood and drawers of water as Verwoerd wanted us to be.
South Africa is a developmental state, and so it is imperative for the Government to intervene in the economy to make a better life for its people. Government with this Bill can provide sustained intervention for the empowerment of the majority of its disadvantaged citizens.
Coming to the Bill itself, a few definitions are in order. Broad-based black economic empowerment means the economic empowerment of all black people. That includes African, Indian and coloured people, and includes women, workers, youth, people with disabilities and people living in rural areas.
The Bill seeks, firstly, to broaden the entrepreneurial base, and to extend black participation in the economy as measured in terms of ownership, management and skills development. It also seeks to develop local communities and employees, and to reduce income inequalities and poverty, amongst other things. Chapter 2 of the Bill states that its objectives are to promote economic transformation - transformation for the majority and not just for the few; to change the racial composition of ownership, management and structures of existing and new enterprises; to increase ownership and management by communities, workers and co-operatives; to promote investment in the enterprises owned and managed by black people; to empower rural communities; to increase the extent to which black women own and manage existing and new enterprises, and to increase their access to economic activities, infrastructure and skills training.
Black women in our country are the poorest of the poor. According to Statistics South Africa, a survey done in 2002 shows that 38,2% of African women are unemployed, 26,7% of coloured women are unemployed, 21,6% of Indian women are unemployed and only 7,8% of white women are unemployed. The majority of black women still work on the outer fringes, not in the core activities of the economy.
The final objective of this Bill is to promote access to finance for black economic empowerment and the Minister has outlined this. Access to finance has always been a stumbling block, despite us engaging with the banks in this regard. Banks have been reluctant to give credit to small businesses, and the development of small and micro entrepreneurship has not really got off the ground.
The Bill does all of the above by the establishment of the Black Economic Empowerment Advisory Council, chaired by the President. The council will comprise the President, three Cabinet Ministers, the Minister of Trade and Industry, and ten to fifteen other members who will include stakeholders from labour, business, academia, NGOs and other stakeholders. A large segment of the council, as you can see, will be members of civil society.
The Minister will establish a constitution and regulations for the council. Support services and funding for the council will come from the Department of Trade and Industry. The Minister of Trade and Industry is empowered to issue codes of good practice. The codes of good practice may include, among other things, the qualification criteria for preferential purposes for procurement and other economic activities, and perhaps more importantly, indicators to measure broad-based black economic empowerment. These codes of practice must be taken into account by all organs of state, public entities, the private sector, NGOs and other stakeholders when they develop, adopt and implement programmes.
Different sectors of the economy must be encouraged to develop their own transformation charters. The Minister will provide a strategy so that there is a co-ordinated and uniform approach to broad-based black economic empowerment.
In the recent Growth and Development Summit 2003 document, it is gratifying to note that in chapter 4.2.2, business specifically confirms its support for the advancement of equity and the promotion of BEE. Business’s commitment will manifest itself in a proactive strategy of transformation to foster and encourage economic empowerment. Targets and timeframes for achieving our goal are important and necessary. The purpose of this Bill is to ensure that as many people as possible can derive benefit from these measures. Underlying all our efforts to intervene concretely and provide an enabling environment is the eradication of poverty, and it will remain our goal until that scourge is wiped out. Political freedom, as important as it is, means very little to the cold, starving, unsheltered and marginalised when parents are unemployed and children still go to bed hungry.
In the President’s words, the First World arm of our economy has done well since 1994. Now we would like to see the Third World economy of our country, which affects the majority of our people, take off and blossom. I hope that all parties that have the growth of the country, the growth of the economy and poverty eradication at heart will see fit to support this Bill. Thank you. [Applause.]
Mr C M LOWE: Deputy Speaker, thank you. Decades of apartheid and institutionalised racial discrimination make black economic empowerment an imperative. To quote the Institute of Race Relations’ John Kane-Berman:
This means finding ways in which millions who suffered under apartheid, a great many of whom still endure poverty, ignorance and disease, can enjoy a place in the sun with a stake in the economy and society.
There is much to be done. Unemployment is at 42%. Three out of every five South Africans live below the poverty line. The poorest 50% of people were even poorer in 2000 than they were in 1995. Forty per cent of the population have completed only primary school and 18% have no schooling at all. The poorest 41% earn only 10% of South Africa’s income.
A decade into our democracy these figures brutally expose the challenges facing South Africa and the myth of a better life for all. The gap in income between rich and poor blacks is greater than ever and we have seen the massive enrichment of an elite, but well-connected few in the name of what passes for black economic empowerment. But for the vast majority of black South Africans, the frontier of poverty is chillingly close by and they remain as marginalised as ever. Political freedom has not of itself brought economic freedom.
The Democratic Alliance strongly supports efforts to transform our economy and empower the millions of South Africans excluded by apartheid. But these must be genuine efforts at their very heart which tackle poverty, unemployment and inadequate education. They must empower the many and not just the few. Thus any broad-based black economic empowerment strategy must focus on job creation and entrepreneurship as its key measurables if it is to make any difference to the lives of those millions of South Africans still excluded by the past.
And that is why the ANC’s current effort of black economic empowerment will fail, because the ANC is less interested in helping the poor and far keener on helping itself. While the DA is for the many, the ANC is for the few. [Interjections.] Until it starts really to empower the many and not just the few, Minister, the ANC’s promise of a better life for all is actually no more than just ``a better life for us’’ - a shameful record of extravagant lives and lifestyles that appear more and more in the face of growing unemployment and poverty. And so this Bill will fail because it does not focus on job creation as its key measurable.
Justifiably it’s been criticised by Cosatu for its narrow focus, and by Moeletsi Mbeki who argues that BEE is just a tool to fulfil the ANC’s political agenda rather than a model for creating entrepreneurs. The Bill will fail because of its overly and unworkably prescriptive reporting requirements and discretionary powers vested in the Minister, and because the empowerment requirements for foreign entities remain unresolved. Together this will deter local entrepreneurs and chase away foreign investment to Brazil, to China and to India. Jobs will be lost, not created.
The Bill will fail because it evades the key question of financing empowerment and because it neglects to link our crucial skills crisis with job creation and empowerment opportunities. A recent survey by Deloitte and Touche found that South African companies are battling to find suitably qualified affirmative action candidates at an executive level and struggling to hold on to those people that they do employ. By focusing on broadening our skills base, Government will unlock the potential of our economy to grow at the kind of levels to absorb the massive numbers of unemployed people in our country.
The Bill will fail because its definition of black South Africans opens the door to massive manipulation and abuse of so-called empowerment deals by powerful, connected ANC cronies and frontmen who qualify as disadvantaged while leaving the broad mass of people just as marginalised as ever. It’s not surprising that only a handful of well-connected and already relatively wealthy businessmen and -women support the ANC’s approach. As we have increasingly seen from so-called empowerment deals, they are the only ones that stand to benefit from it in any meaningful way.
This Bill will fail because it puts economic growth and empowerment in competition with one another. President Mbeki is quite wrong when he writes
- as if it were a fact - that higher rates of growth of 6% and above would not of themselves reduce unemployment levels. That is nonsense. Economic growth is the only sure way of addressing poverty and joblessness. And the President has travelled far enough around the world to have seen this for himself.
The Bill will fail because it seeks to increase growth, create more jobs and deliver more equitable income distribution simply by transferring existing equity, while ignoring the need to attract investment and increase the equity pool. It will ultimately fail because it only propagates a better life for some and not a better life for all. Far from being broad based, it narrowly focuses on a few people from the advantaged and elite.
In contrast, the Democratic Alliance’s vision of broad-based economic empowerment is to give people access to skills and opportunities, to realise their full potential and take control of and responsibility for their own lives. This Thursday, when the DA launches its empowerment policy entitled ``Opportunity for All’’, we will show how jobs, jobs and more jobs are the key to broad-based empowerment and are the surest way of empowering the marginalised and the poor. We will demonstrate the two fundamental concepts to the DA’s approach: equal opportunity for all, and merit, not race. These arise from our commitment to democracy, equality before the law and the freedom, worth and dignity of every individual.
The DA will empower people by ensuring that they have access to skills and opportunity, are objectively judged on their merits and are able to fulfil their full potential. Properly implemented economic empowerment can be a partnership for success for all South Africans, together with innovative policies such as employee stock options and the rapid privatisation of parastatals, giving employees shares in these enterprises. We will address the skills crisis by scrapping the detrimental race quota system on professions and jobs requiring scarce skills, immediately attracting new skills which in turn will create new employment and training opportunities for unskilled South Africans.
Our policy will introduce entrepreneurial and practical business courses at schools from an early age, with a massive roll-out of training programmes to help retrain retrenched workers and assist unskilled people to make them employable. You see, sustainable job creation does result from new investment and economic growth, and will be at the very heart of the DA’s empowerment programme. Until President Mbeki admits this and his Government takes it seriously and gears everything it does towards this end, the jobless queues he encountered on the streets of South Africa this past weekend will only get longer, while the ANC cronies enrich themselves further in the name of black economic empowerment.
For these reasons the Democratic Alliance is in favour of radical and transcending change, the kind of positive change that will dramatically improve our economy and society. We believe that broad-based economic empowerment is important, is necessary and desirable and that deracialising ownership of large listed companies is welcome, but is also no substitute for broad-based empowerment which must address the urgent needs of ordinary people at grass-roots level.
The DA believes that jobs are the surest way of empowering the marginalised and the poor, and that empowerment criteria such as race, gender and disability should be plus factors, but not the sole considerations when affirmative action appointments are made or contracts awarded. We believe that affirmative action legislation should incorporate sunset clauses and that empowerment should, wherever possible, be on a nonracial basis. This is because, Minister, our racist and terrible past still often divides us. Some people are disappointed and frustrated because they had hoped that democracy would bring them new opportunities immediately. Others feel threatened because they fear that they could become victims of reverse discrimination. Empowering disadvantaged individuals is not easy because affirmative action is an extremely complex and sensitive issue with the potential to facilitate healing, but also the potential to sow seeds of new bitterness in our diverse society. If we are to move forward, we dare not allow anything to perpetuate or exacerbate the deep divides in our society or create new lines of division. Greater participation and ownership by black South Africans in the economy is wholly desirable and long overdue, but for millions and millions of desperately poor South Africans participation starts with a job and creating jobs for them is not just desirable but imperative.
As long as Government focuses on the transfer of existing equity instead of transformation through economic growth and job creation, as long as the ANC keeps protecting the few and forgetting the many, until the ANC starts helping the poor and stops helping themselves, black economic empowerment will remain a short-cut to wealth for the very few and a myth to those who deserve and need it the most. Thank you. [Applause.] Mr B C NGIBA: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. The question of black economic empowerment is a crucial one for the future of democracy in South Africa. It would be futile to think that the achievement of political power by the majority in 1994 could be sustainable and long-lasting if that was the only fruit of liberation for the majority.
For many decades the majority had been excluded from participating in the economy to any meaningful extent, save perhaps for the provision of cheap labour on which much of our modern industrialised economy is built. That exclusion cannot be tolerated within a democracy.
Since 1994, and even slightly before that, it has become clear that meaningful BEE would have to take place to secure democracy and social stability into the future. It also became clear quite quickly that voluntary empowerment initiatives were limited in their application and success rate, thus the need for Government intervention in the market through legislation.
But there is a further reason beyond stability that makes BEE a necessity. For the past decade, South Africa’s economy has grown, but not at the rates that are required effectively to address deepseated poverty, job losses and the accompanying social weaknesses. BEE, in broadening ownership and participation by the majority in the overall economy, has the potential to be an effective driver for accelerated economic growth and job creation. It can therefore be said that BEE is definitely in the national interest.
That being said, the question must be asked why legislation is needed for something as obviously strategic and important as BEE. The answer is twofold. Firstly, successive apartheid governments used legislation to exclude the majority from participation in the economy; and secondly, the first wave of BEE that started in the early nineties has had only limited success as far as its scope and benefits are concerned. Taken in combination, these two reasons provide enough justification to legislate for BEE.
BEE has to achieve certain minimum conditions for it to be judged successful over the medium term. Among other things, these are accelerated economic growth, large-scale job creation, skills development, the alleviation of poverty - especially in our rural areas - management participation for the majority, equity ownership, and general participation by everyone in economic activities, not only the select few who are at the head of empowerment consortiums.
At the same time there are many potential pitfalls that must be avoided for BEE to be successful. Some of these are excessive Government interference in a market economy that could lead to distortions, inflexibility of laws and regulations, excessive red tape and bureaucratic tangles that increase compliance costs and the cost of doing profitable business, uncertainty in the business operating environment, disincentives to investment, and alienating foreign-based companies doing business in our country.
It is probably much too early to judge whether a piece of legislation that creates a broad framework for BEE could or would achieve success by avoiding the pitfalls mentioned. Nevertheless, the IFP recognises the need for such legislation and we will therefore support the Bill before us today.
In conclusion, Madam Speaker, the Bill gives the Minister of Trade and Industry a large measure of discretionary power. Our hope is that he and his successors will use this power wisely, in a balanced manner and to the benefit of all. I thank you.
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Madam Deputy Speaker, colleagues, hon members, I am surprised that the hon member Lowe has decided to leave the room. [Interjections.] He is still here, thank you. I would just like to respond to what this hon member has raised. I have four things to say to you, Mr Lowe.
The first is that if you did attend the portfolio committee meetings you will know that this Bill is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. You would also know that during the public hearings, the majority of inputs to the portfolio committee supported the broad-based strategy that we have put forward in this legislation. For me it is only the DA that feels that the Bill will fail. Indeed, as you say, we intend to use this as our tool for our agenda, which is not, as you said, a political one, but about economic growth, job creation and ending inequalities.
Finally, you talk about the DA that will empower people. I think the only empowerment that your party can lay claim to is the renting of the masses of our people for your meetings to follow your leader, in order to give a sense of mass support in the media. [Laughter.] [Applause].
Regarding the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill … [Interjections.] No, just shut up, please! Can I be protected, Madam Speaker? [Interjections.]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Hon members, please allow the Deputy Minister to speak.
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill is a significant piece of legislation, as it seeks structurally to transform the patterns of ownership, management, skills levels and enterprises in our economy. The Minister has already outlined in his address to this House how the Bill will achieve these objectives, while concurrently addressing the issues of broader economic growth in our country.
For me, an important aspect of this Bill is that it starts to address the need for women entrepreneurs to be included in the structural transformation of our economy, so that they can benefit from the changes that will take place in South Africa as a result of this legislation. I do not need to remind this House of the negative impact that apartheid and colonialism has had on black women in South Africa - how they were deskilled and placed in the lowest levels of employment and economically disenfranchised. I think the hon member Fatima Hajaig touched on this.
The Bill seeks to achieve black women’s equal participation in the economy. Clause 2 outlines the objectives of the Bill, which includes increasing the extent to which black women own and manage existing and new enterprises, and increasing their access to economic activities, infrastructure and skills training.
Furthermore, clause 9(3) of the Bill highlights the need to promote the achievement of equality of women through issuing a code of good practice. Such a code should allow for a distinction between black men and women in the setting of targets.
By incorporating and specifically targeting women, who represent up to 60% of small and medium enterprises and survivalist businesses in South Africa, this Bill fulfils its mandate of being a broad-based document that starts to address the needs of the majority of our people. However, it is necessary that women, most of whom are in the lower echelons of the business community, should feel the impact of this empowerment, and be empowered to move up the value chain and be able to grow their businesses.
It is important for the economic development of our country that the potential of all our people, both men and women, is tapped into and fully utilised. Therefore the challenge is to ensure that in the implementation of the Bill women’s participation is included in the targets that will be set and that are currently being set by industries and sectors in their transformation charters, particularly in the areas of enterprise development, human resource development, procurement, and ownership and management.
It will thus become necessary for the BEE council that is going to be set up to ensure that in their monitoring process they track the impact that BEE is having on women’s enterprises and women in the workplace. Through the use of the code of good practice, it will be possible to set and monitor the targets for greater participation by women in broad-based black economic empowerment.
Another challenge - a major one, I think - is to ensure that support structures such as the IDC and the National Empowerment Fund that the Minister mentioned in his speech are geared towards the support of women’s enterprises. In addition, it will be necessary to have specific mechanisms that exclusively target women’s enterprises in the support that these institutions offer.
Indeed, lack of access to capital has been noted as one of the main factors retarding the development of black-owned small and medium enterprises in South Africa. A 2002 report on South Africa by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor rated finance as the second biggest problem facing entrepreneurs in South Africa, after structural obstacles. The study said that only one third of black people who applied for finance got approval. Lack of collateral was the most widespread problem, facing 45% of unsuccessful applicants, the report noted. These are the challenges that both the IDC and the NEF need to address.
Maybe I should mention, hon Minister, that at the recent conference of the ANC Women’s League’s commission dealing with economic empowerment, women called very strongly for a quota of the BEE funding to be reserved exclusively for woman-owned businesses. I am expecting that the women will be knocking on your door after this.
While deliberating on the BEE strategy and legislation, women were already calling on us, saying that they know there are people who are acting as fronts for white people and for men, and asking where they should report this. I think we have to give the women answers to these questions.
Already women entrepreneurs have started to interrogate the broad-based BEE strategy. At a workshop organised by the SA Women Entrepreneurs Network, Sawen, women identified potential opportunities arising from this strategy, as well as certain challenges posed by the strategy. Through Sawen, women entrepreneurs were able to make a formal submission to the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry on these challenges, and were able to highlight their specific needs, some of which have been addressed by the amendments.
Organisations such as Sawen and other businesswomen’s associations will play a useful role in ensuring that the implementation of the BEE strategy is broad-based, but, most of all, that it does indeed benefit women.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the Minister and the team from enterprise and industry development for their efforts and the hard work that they have put into this process. I would also like to thank the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, particularly its chairperson, for the way that they handled the public hearings and for the amendments that they have made to the Bill. In particular, I would like to commend them for ensuring that women’s economic empowerment and the equality of women has not only stayed on the agenda, but that an additional clause on the need for the Bill to promote equality of women in the code of good practice has been included.
I am pleased to be associated with this Bill, which indeed will transform our political freedom into economic freedom. And with your support of this Bill, we will be able to achieve the transformation and growth that our country requires. I thank you. [Applause.]
Dr R T RHODA: Madam Deputy Speaker, practical economists and political scientists all over the world normally agree that few countries have ever managed successfully to change the economic and social complexion of its population by acts of parliament.
Old South Africa went this route. In the early 1900s South African legislators, motivated by insecurity and greed, set out unapologetically to devise a deliberate defensive bastion against black economic advancement and ensured that black labour remained cheap and easy to control, especially after the discovery of diamonds and gold.
Faced with the dual problems of white poverty and white unemployment, they proceeded to achieve white economic empowerment by means of acts of parliament. They used sustained government intervention to keep blacks out of the competitive market, securing jobs and higher wages for themselves. In fact, a raft of empowerment laws were enacted over the years, as we all know. The structured exclusion of black people from the economic mainstream thus began a long time ago.
This systematic dispossession and disempowerment produced the racially distorted, skewed economic landscape that we are witnessing today - the two nations that President Mbeki so often speaks about. We have two economies, a First World economy and a Third World economy.
Yes, post-apartheid South Africa is witnessing deracialisation and reconstruction of society on many fronts, but, sadly, the economy remains profoundly racialised. Much has been achieved since 1994, but we are still trapped in a low-growth equilibrium, economic exclusion and underdevelopment.
The extent to which this achieved growth has been shared equitably amongst all South Africans is not yet adequate for the requirements of a stable, integrated and prosperous society. There is also no guarantee that higher levels of growth would automatically lead to a reduction in the levels of poverty and unemployment.
Our approach to black economic empowerment is intelligent, responsible, soft-edged and tempered. In my humble opinion, it is an apologetic approach, too timid, too polite, with no real teeth, not saying what it is that we want to do with any authority, and depending too much on scorecards and charters.
Whilst we have in place empowerment reporting systems and monitoring systems for both the private and the public sectors, I have doubts as to how effective this will be. For some the excuse is that a radical, rigid, inflexible, prescriptive approach is not in the interests of a modern and globally competitive economy. Others, again, say our entry into the global economy has allowed neo-apartheid practices to be camouflaged by a new discourse, a discourse about the free market and flexibility.
Many problems still need to be solved, such as fronting, false declarations, and exploitation of casual and contract workers that allows employers to bypass labour legislation, causing super-exploitation of workers. Then there is intense competition between workers and supervisors, overseers and managers, and, of course, the upward-floating colour bar, which allows black people to become supervisors, but deprives them of the power and privileges that went with those positions before.
We can only hope that wisdom will prevail and that all South African businesses will join hands and make use of this opportunity to help advance the economic transformation of this country, and not to isolate themselves. Of course, risks will have to be taken, but then, again, that is the nature of all business ventures. Let us bake a bigger pie so that all can share it.
The New NP supports the Bill. I thank you.
Mr D LOCKEY: Madam Deputy Speaker, in his state of the nation address earlier this year, the President committed the Government to a global transformation charter that would allow for pragmatism, flexibility, certainty and stability. This Bill creates the legal framework to enable the Government and state-owned enterprises to actively promote the process of black economic empowerment within the parameters outlined by the President.
I wish today to address a few themes. The one is our achievements in black economic empowerment as Government over the past nine years. I wish to argue that black economic empowerment is an imperative in our society, and to address the Government’s role in nurturing and supporting black economic empowerment and also the issue of empowerment funding.
But let me respond briefly to the hon Lowe. Only last week the hon Lowe
stated in the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry that black economic
empowerment was one of the reasons why we were not getting any investment
in this country, implying that if we wanted investment we should not have
BEE. Today he presents himself as one of the major champions of black
economic empowerment and the poor. The DA should be the DO'' because they
areDishonest Opportunists’’. We all know that the DA has consistently
opposed all major transformation initiatives by this Government and we are
not surprised that they are not in favour of our Bill today.
The hon Lowe stated that BEE has only benefited a small black elite. This is simply not true. Over the last decade the Industrial Development Corporation financed 625 BEE transactions, mainly in an unlisted environment, at a cost of R5,6 billion. All major oil companies in this country have concluded empowerment transactions with broad-based consortia, and it is estimated that 18% of this industry is now owned by these consortia.
An average of 80% of fishing quotas in this country have been issued to companies that are majority black-owned. There have been significant advances in mining and the mining charter will no doubt continue to support this process. Through a preferential procurement system the state has helped thousands of black-owned companies to obtain contracts from Government. State-owned enterprises such as Telkom, Eskom and Transnet have also assisted and made a significant contribution to BEE. The ANC has indeed helped many who had no opportunities under apartheid.
One of the biggest challenges we face in our young democracy is to create opportunities for the majority of South Africans to break out of the cycle of poverty. No one can argue that this is an imperative for greater social stability and for a stable democratic order.
The increase in levels of poverty is not something that is unique to this country. It is a global phenomenon in all developing countries. Prof Joseph Stiglitz, who is a Nobel laureate in economics, argues that the excesses of globalisation are responsible for this phenomenon. He also argues that we need regulations to assist and protect the poor against these excesses. So to come and blame this Government for the increase in the level of poverty is simply dishonest.
The problem of underdevelopment can only be overcome if the state puts programmes in place actively to assist historically disadvantaged individuals to break out of cycles of poverty. This Bill aims to achieve this objective.
The most important challenge in this process is that we must create a diverse and strong economic base that includes all our people. This has the potential to unleash new opportunities for growth and development which will ultimately benefit all South Africans. We must empower our people through education and training to become skilled and financially literate. This is vital in the process of achieving higher levels of entrepreneurial activity.
UCT’s Graduate School of Business 2002 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor reports that only 6,4% of South Africa’s adult population is involved in entrepreneurial activity, compared to 18,9% in Thailand, 17,9% in India, 15,7% in Chile, 13,5% in Brazil and 12,4% in Mexico. The study also found that education is the main reason South Africa ranks poorly against entrepreneurial benchmarks. The Small Business Amendment Bill that we passed earlier this year, Minister, creates comprehensive guidelines for the training and development of a cadre of new emerging entrepreneurs in this country.
Finally, the reason we need empowerment is that we need to create greater levels of social pluralism in our society, and incubate the rise of multiple social forces to sustain our democracy. No democracy is sustainable in the long term if the productive wealth of a country is concentrated in the hands of a few.
The Government has a very important role to play in empowerment. It is ultimately the champion of the empowerment process. Clause 10 of the Bill provides that all Government departments and state-owned enterprises must take into account the empowerment credentials of any business competing for a state tender. This process is further assisted by, for the first time, a comprehensive definition of what constitutes broad-based BEE.
Secondly, it must, as far as is reasonably possible, apply the relevant codes of good practice to ensure that those firms that are committed to legitimate broad-based empowerment achieve a competitive advantage over those that are not. The approach is simple: no one will be forced to commit to empowerment, but the state will use its power of procurement and its regulatory capacity in the economy to actively assist and promote broad- based BEE. The entire process of BEE is guided by the strategy document, the code of good practice and the sectoral charters.
Empowerment funding is another important area. One of the major challenges we face in this country is for disadvantaged people first of all to identify the right business opportunities, preferably opportunities to which they can add value and not simply be passive investors, and secondly, to obtain sustainable funding for such transactions. The reason some empowerment transactions are failing or struggling is because they did not meet these requirements for successful business transactions. They run into cash-flow problems and it is almost impossible to repay interest on capital borrowed for such transactions.
Empowerment funding has thus far been complicated by an over-reliance on high-interest-bearing debt financing. The interest on empowerment funding offered by some state agencies is unrealistically high. The IDC is a notable exception. If one looks at the Isibaya Fund, one is looking at approximately 20% interest on loans for empowerment transactions. This creates a sort of trap for many empowerment companies, because one can give a loan at 20% to some of the most experienced entrepreneurs in our society and they will fail because this is simply a too high interest rate for investment capital.
So, Minister, we must consider alternatives such as an empowerment bond. With bond prices internationally being low at the moment, this is certainly something you need to explore to assist historically disadvantaged individuals.
Another option is to build our equity financing institutions. South Africa’s private equity and venture capital market is largely undeveloped and unexplored. The advantage here is that the financier’s share in the risk and the upside mitigate the risk for the BEE component. These financing options have the potential to deliver much cheaper investment capital for empowerment transactions.
I conclude. There are many challenges in the process of BEE but there are also many opportunities. I have endeavoured to highlight a few. We in the ANC support this Bill because we believe it creates the right framework to nurture and build broad-based black economic empowerment. We believe this Bill further enables our Government to address the problem of underdevelopment amongst our people. It is a further step in our efforts to enable our people to push back the frontiers of poverty themselves.
Our country is founded on the pillars of human dignity, equality, the advancement of human rights and freedom. These noble objectives of our democracy can only be achieved if our Government is enabled to assist the majority in our society to break out of the stranglehold of poverty and underdevelopment. I thank you. [Applause.]
Mr L M GREEN: Deputy Speaker, the ACDP is in agreement that ownership of the economy should reflect the demographic extent of our population. The one distinction we hold, however, is that we support a policy based on equitable empowerment which allows every competent South African equal access to this country’s available resources. South Africa is a democracy based on the value that equality is the right of all its citizens. Therefore, equal access to equal opportunities is a national imperative.
The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill seeks to deracialise the economy by spreading economic influence among all the people in South Africa. However, even if these objectives are realised, the problem exists that legislation such as the one under discussion may politicise the way economics is practised in South Africa long after black economic empowerment has been achieved. There is a danger that if we place too much emphasis on group preference, perpetually with no sunset clause, economic synergy representing all South Africans may suffer.
In the past we had white Afrikaner economic empowerment. It was done sincerely to address the poor white question. The problem was that it was done at the expense of others, and when those people who needed to be empowered became empowered there was no sunset clause with regard to that kind of empowerment. So although this group has attained economic advancement, it did not help much in breaking them free from certain ideological constraints.
Although this Bill has positive objectives, black economic business per se must develop its own independent growth needs. So although the ACDP supports this Bill and the principles of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill, we wish to note our concern that black empowerment is not a panacea for economic growth. Economic growth is about a national identity equally engaging everyone involved in business. I thank you.
Mr G T MADIKIZA: Madam Deputy Speaker, hon Minister and hon members, the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill seeks to create a legal framework and policy clarity on a vital subject. It is the lack of this legal and policy framework that last year precipitated a crisis when billions of the share value of mining stocks were wiped out with the leaking of the draft mining charter. That incident and its subsequent resolution has proved that it is not so much the intention of transformation, as the uncertainty of how it will be approached, that can lead to suspicion and resistance on the part of economic stakeholders and investors.
As we progress towards an economy that is more inclusive and participatory, we must be vigilant against the abuse of this process for the establishment of a new elite. Such incidents do not improve the lives of the majority. It is therefore important that the concept ``broad-based’’ should be the operative theme in the pursuit of economic empowerment.
The UDM is particularly pleased with the prominent reference in the Bill to infrastructure as well as skills development. These two aspects are central concerns of the UDM, and we believe passionately that our future economic success depends on massive investments in these areas of infrastructure development and skills development.
It is our belief that the provisions regarding transformation charters as well as codes of good practice go a long way towards encouraging economic stakeholders to participate actively in this vital process. The specific inclusion in clause 9(1)(c) and (d) of indicators for measurement will hopefully ensure that proper monitoring of the process is conducted on a regular basis to ensure that progress is encouraged, strategies are re- evaluated if positive results are lacking, and that abuse is identified and addressed timeously.
South Africa is potentially an economic powerhouse. It is up to South Africans from all backgrounds to embrace our collective potential and make broad-based black economic empowerment a reality. The UDM supports the Bill. I thank you.
Mr I S MFUNDISI: Madam Deputy Speaker and colleagues, the Government has been at pains to improve the lot of our people by passing pieces of legislation such as the Labour Relations Act and the Employment Equity Act, and the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill is another measure to attempt to allow black people to taste the wealth of this country.
The Bill should however not be used as an instrument to cultivate a patriotic African bourgeoisie. It should assist in improving the lot of the diligent disadvantaged blacks. Broad-based black economic empowerment should be approached with the greatest circumspection. It is necessary to keep in mind the SACP’s thesis of colonialism of a special type when saddling the black economic empowerment horse.
We in the UCDP will support the Bill, hoping that it will, unlike its precursors, assist in making headway with productive investment, job creation, income growth, redistribution and working conditions. We hope it will be broad-based in real terms.
As we deliberate on this Bill and hope to redress economic imbalances, it should not slip our minds that the fates of black economic ventures have not been happy at all. The Business Times of 30 January 2000 reports that in 1997, 28 black-controlled firms listed on the JSE had a market capitalisation worth 9,3% on the JSE total, but by the end of 1999 black control of market capitalisation on the JSE had plunged to 6,8%. Therefore we need to be very circumspect.
We have no doubt that the guidelines laid down in the Bill will be followed religiously, as it is a product of extensive consultation between Government, the private sector and other institutions such as the chambers of business. If the charters are as envisaged, and balanced scorecards are used consistently by the advisory council to measure progress and success in empowerment, there may be hope that our economy will be turned around and the lives of hardworking blacks could improve.
The UCDP supports the Bill. Dr R H DAVIES: Madam Deputy Speaker, anyone who believes that the DA will be opposing this Bill because it wants a more robust and broader approach to BEE or that it stands for the interests of the majority probably also believes in the tooth fairy and Father Christmas.
I have news for Mr Lowe, who I don’t believe was sufficiently engaged in the debates in the portfolio committee. The Bill before us today does promote a broad-based approach to black economic empowerment. It is not so broad that it covers every programme to combat poverty and inequality, or so broad that it attempts to reduce all other interventions to black economic empowerment, but it certainly does aim to unleash processes that will be of benefit to large numbers of black people across society as a whole.
Thus, while changing the racially skewed pattern of ownership of existing formal sector firms and enterprises, in effect, combating the effects of long entrenched job reservation for the bourgeoisie does remain an important objective. The policy on which this Bill is based also seeks to promote structural change in the economy, which will broaden access to the powers of economic ownership for large numbers of black people across society.
The Bill’s first objective thus speaks of promoting economic
transformation in order to enable meaningful participation of black people
in the economy''. Other objectives speak of increasing the extent to
which communities, workers, co-operatives and other collective enterprises
own and manage existing and new enterprises, and increasing their access to
economic activities, infrastructure and skills training’’.
It has been increasingly widely recognised that broad-based black economic empowerment of this type is not only a political and social but also an economic imperative. The Growth and Development Summit which was held in June this year saw Government and social partners agreeing on the need to act together on programmes to combat the trend towards economic marginalisation of many of our people, trends which have their origin in the 1970s and in processes outside the political economy of South Africa.
The social partners agreed at the Growth and Development Summit that the absolute economic priority at the present phase of our development is to enlarge income-earning opportunities for many thousands of black people suffering the effects of structural unemployment. A key feature of informed debate and thinking on this matter is a recognition that this will not come about through the expanded reproduction of the existing and established formal sector and the creation of wage labour employment in that sector alone. Rather, efforts to boost job creation and job retention in the formal economy need to be complemented by structural change which boosts access to high-quality income-earning opportunities for people in alternative economic activities and which addresses the complex reality of asset, skill and income poverty, as well as reducing high levels of inequality facing our country.
This indeed is increasingly widely seen as critical to boosting growth, which in the context of our reality cannot be separated from efforts to promote development. A notable feature of the Growth and Development Summit therefore was that the social partners endorsed broad-based black economic empowerment as one of the critical components of a strategy to boost developmental growth. One of the recommendations in the report of the portfolio committee which was published in yesterday’s ATCs is that the revised version of the strategy document on which this Bill is based should adopt the definition of broad-based black economic empowerment agreed at the Growth and Development Summit.
The Bill and the strategy document on which it is based are the product of long debates and discussion. They build on important work undertaken by the Black Economic Empowerment Commission, chaired by Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa, and on sections on BEE in the Resolution on Economic Transformation adopted at the ANC’s 51st Congress in Stellenbosch. The strategy document acknowledges that earlier efforts to promote BEE were both too narrow and too fragile. The strategy document identifies specific points of intervention to shape a broader and more durable process.
As previous speakers have indicated, the strategy document presents a framework to measure a sector’s or form’s contribution to BEE, something that was previously extremely subjective and elusive. It also offers clear definitions of black enterprise, black-empowered enterprise, black woman- owned enterprise, and community or broad-based enterprise, which should assist in combating the practice of fronting, which the Deputy Minister referred to earlier.
The strategy document then indicates that Government and public entities, in decisions on awarding tenders, contracts or regulatory benefits, will use a balanced scorecard measuring the contribution to BEE according to measurable criteria in the realm of ownership, access to skilled occupations, and so-called indirect empowerment, which includes contracts and tendering but also contributions to infrastructure development and, Mr Lowe, to job creation - ie that all these are taken into account in such decisions.
The Bill creates a legal basis to give effect to this by allowing the Minister to promulgate codes of good practice and to publish sectoral charters that the Minister is satisfied promote the objects of the Bill and have been arrived at by inclusive processes in the sector concerned. The Bill places specific obligations on public entities in this regard and also, as previous speakers have said, establishes an advisory council, chaired by the President but including members, representatives of relevant constituencies, chosen through an appropriate consultative process.
One of the main changes made at the committee stage was to significantly strengthen the provisions related to the obligations of public entities. All organs of state and public entities are required to ``take into account and, as far as is reasonably possible, apply any relevant code of good practice’’ in regulatory decisions and in their own transactions. This in my opinion considerably advances the view of the role of state and enterprises in promoting BEE over the initial drafts of the Bill. The Bill makes it clear that public entities have broad responsibilities in this regard in the daily conduct of their operations, and further points will be elaborated in the shareholder compacts.
The Bill and strategy document will provide a framework. The details will emerge in the processes that will follow, namely in the processes of developing sectoral charters and in compiling and assessing the balanced scorecards. It is in and through the details of these processes that we will be able to measure and assess progress in promoting broad-based BEE. The advisory council will have a critical role to play in this regard, but one would expect and hope that all other monitoring activities, including those undertaken by this Parliament, will begin to request reports on BEE performance as measured in balanced scorecards, as well as interrogating the basis on which these measurements are constructed. As I indicated earlier, it is now widely agreed in this country that broad- based BEE is an economic as well as a social imperative. I hope and trust that we will see this sentiment being translated into positive co-operation to push this process forward.
The ANC will of course be supporting this Bill. [Interjections.]
Dr S E M PHEKO: Madam Deputy Speaker, this Bill has good intentions. The PAC supports it. The only problem is that the expression ``black economic empowerment’’ is now becoming meaningless.
The purpose of the Bill is, inter alia, to establish a legislative framework for the promotion of black economic empowerment. In its preamble the Bill states, among other things, that under apartheid race was used to control access to South Africa’s productive resources, and access to skills. This is correct.
But, can there be promotion of black economic empowerment when the African people, who were never put in possession of resources such as land and mineral wealth, are without capital to advance economically? Can there be promotion of black economic empowerment when the children of the poor in this country cannot receive education because they cannot afford the school fees? Education determines the place of our children in this society, and in the world, when they become adults.
Statistics show that the African people, whom we call black in this country, are the most unemployed. Only 50% of African workers are employed. This shows that they are unskilled and therefore cannot compete with those who have money to pay their school fees and acquire university and higher education.
Over 10 million Africans live in squatter camps not fit for human beings. Yet, there is a property clause in the Constitution of our country which has legalised their land dispossession by confining land claims to after June 1913, when the consequences of the Native Land Act of 1913 are well known to have been the main cause of the poverty the African people suffer today.
African businesspeople have become bankrupt in great numbers. They need assistance if this Bill is to have any meaning. African farmers throughout the country have to be subsidised and given training to become successful farmers. Too many of them owe banks millions of rands. They are not protected.
Last week I saw the misery of some of these farmers in Mafikeng. It is a disgrace that the vast African majority of this country controls only 2% of our country’s economy, while this economy was built with their so-called cheap native labour. I thank you.
Miss S RAJBALLY: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. South Africa’s economy cannot operate to its full potential because the vast majority is still earning a very low income, and is excluded from ownership of fixed assets. The MF feels that advanced skills are also urgently needed for the majority of South Africans to participate in the economy of South Africa.
The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill seeks to extend black participation in the economy in terms of ownership, management and skills development, also to reduce income inequalities and poverty, which is wholeheartedly supported by the MF.
The proposal in this Bill to promote changes and economic transformation of the racial composition of ownership, and to increase management by communities, workers and co-operatives, are steps in the right direction, as are empowering rural and local communities which were totally excluded in the past by the apartheid regime.
This Bill makes provision for levelling the playing field. Therefore, the MF supports the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.
Mr C AUCAMP: Madam Deputy Speaker, the NA is in favour of economic empowerment, not of a few, but of all in South Africa. We also accept the reality that the focus inevitably will fall on black economic empowerment, as objective statistics prove that this is the area where disempowerment is at its highest. This is, however, a very delicate issue, as was proved by the adverse consequences when the preliminary document on black empowerment in the mining sector was leaked to the press.
Die NA glo dat ekonomiese bemagtiging oor die volle spektrum moet geskied. Ons glo in die ou gesegde: as die watervlak in die hawe styg, dan lig dit al die skepe op. Daarom moet selfs swart ekonomiese bemagtiging in hoofsaak fokus op ekonomiese groei, op die uitskakeling van beleidsrigtings en praktyke wat ekonomiese groei belemmer, en op die verkleining van die ontsaglike kloof tussen ryk en arm oor alle gemeenskappe heen. Ons merk té min daarvan in hierdie wetsontwerp. Die fokus val steeds nie op bemagtiging nie, maar op bevoorregting. In die proses word bloot nuwe ongelykhede geskep. Dit is verstaanbaar dat hierdie wetsontwerp slegs breë riglyne wil neerlê. In die proses is dit egter só breed dat die Minister se bevoegdhede so breed word dat hy met ‘n bokwa daarin kan draai. Volgens klousule 9 mag die Minister self definisies en vertolkings, kwalifikasiekriteria en riglyne bepaal. Juis die vaagheid en die breë basis van dié wetgewing gee in effek carte blanche aan die Minister.
Hierdie wetgewing fokus hoegenaamd nie op die sleutelvraag van werkskepping nie, ook nie op die kritieke vraag van vaardigheidsontwikkeling nie. Verder is daar geen vereiste vir die ononderhandelbaarheid van standaarde en die plek van meriete nie.
Met dié wetgewing het ons die bal laat val om ‘n beleid daar te stel wat bemagtiging met groei kon versoen en vertroue in die Suid-Afrikaanse ekonomie kon verhoog. Die NA kan nie dié wetgewing ondersteun nie. Ek dank u. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[The NA believes that economic empowerment should take place over the full spectrum. We believe in the old saying: if the water level in the harbour rises, it lifts all the ships. That is why even black economic empowerment should focus mainly on economic growth, on the elimination of policy directions and practices which hamper economic growth, and on the reduction of the giant gulf between rich and poor in all communities. We note too little of that in this Bill. The focus is still not on empowerment, but on privilege. In the process new inequalities are merely being created.
It is understandable that this Bill only seeks to lay down broad guidelines. In the process it is, however, so broad that the Minister’s powers become so broad that he can turn in them with a buck-wagon. According to clause 9 the Minister may himself decide on definitions, interpretations, qualification criteria and guidelines. The very vagueness and the broad base of this legislation in effect give carte blanche to the Minister.
This legislation does not in any way focus on the key issue of job creation, or on the critical issue of skills development. Moreover, there is no requirement for the non-negotiability of standards and the place of merit.
With this legislation we have missed the chance to introduce a policy which could reconcile empowerment with growth and which could increase confidence in the South African economy. The NA cannot support this legislation. I thank you.]
Ms T E MILLIN: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Apartheid is apparently alive and well and thriving in South Africa, if this Bill and its title are anything to go by.
If this Bill, geared to empower black South Africans - unfortunately at the expense of white South Africans - were, in practice, to set up wealth- generating opportunities for the masses, there might be some benefit for our economy as a whole. Instead, the vast disparity between rich and poor, among whom a growing number are poor white South Africans, is the harsh reality.
In effect, BEE has resulted in widespread enrichment of politically well- connected fat cats, invariably thrust into positions of influence, often ill equipped to handle the huge responsibilities associated with high office, resulting in the situation in which we now find ourselves, with a select few filthy rich individuals amid a sea of grinding poverty.
This is really not the way to true economic empowerment. BEE is essentially no different from the pernicious and racist job reservation of the apartheid government. It is naked racism, discrimination in reverse, except in the case of the old job reservation it was an arguably sustainable version, empowering a small minority of South Africans, whereas BEE is an engineered empowerment of a huge majority, which is patently unsustainable.
What South Africa requires for true economic empowerment for all, irrespective of race, is the creation of a vibrant economy, dependent not on one’s political allegiances, but on the hard work and industry of the broad mass of ordinary or, should I say, extraordinary South Africans. And all Government needs to do is interfere as little as possible, instead playing a facilitating and enabling role, removing obstacles such as restrictive labour legislation and excessive taxation, and reserving tough laws to combat violent crime, which is a growing threat to the future economic sustainability of our country.
I thank you Deputy Speaker. I do not support the Bill.
Ms C C SEPTEMBER: Thank you, Deputy Speaker. Hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon members and comrades, indeed, as we are about to celebrate our coming decade of freedom in this country, the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill in front of us here today fulfils that commitment and the mandate our people gave us in 1955 when the Freedom Charter was put together by our people.
The Freedom Charter said to us that South Africa belongs to all who live in it and indeed that the wealth of the country shall be shared amongst all those who work in it. It is ironic to hear the IAM talking about reverse racism when we have a Constitution in this country that argues that equality is important and that all South Africans should enjoy equal participation, not in certain things, but in particular in the economy of South Africa. We should maybe ask them to read the Constitution of South Africa so that they can become familiar with the fact that this country belongs to all now, and not just to a few.
The 1994 democratic breakthrough by the ANC has opened up possibilities for the transformation of the South African economy, and for a society in pursuit of the historical objectives of the social emancipation of black people and women in particular. There can therefore be no contradiction of the urgency to raise the growth levels of the economy and the need to redistribute the skewed wealth and ownership patterns we still have in South Africa today. These are mutually reinforcing imperatives, neither sustainable without the other.
The commitment given to this country at the Growth and Development Summit in June this year by Government, business and labour and the communities, not only identified the key challenges to broad-based black empowerment, but most importantly, the agreement laid the basis for us in a very organised way to contribute to this realisation of ending the dualism in this economy.
Today, as we pass this Bill, we mandate our Government to use the necessary tools at their disposal, such as procurement, licensing and tendering, to stimulate the creation of jobs and to promote small enterprises. Those tools, we trust, Madam Deputy Speaker, will also be used by Parliament itself and not only by the Government institutions.
The challenge ahead of us is to build what I would argue is a people’s economy. A people’s economy places the eradication of poverty at the centre of economic restructuring and replaces the myth of ever-increasing fronting that most of our black people were led to believe was necessary to gain entry into the economy. Julius Nyerere was correct when he said we should not give people fish only, we must give people the rods also in order for them to catch the fish.
In the August edition of ANC Today the President articulated these issues. I could hear many today trying to articulate and interpret some of these issues, but of course they are not in the ANC and they will never understand our language. The President correctly argues in ANC Today - and one wholeheartedly supports these views - that sometimes higher rates of economic growth, of 6% and above, will not on their own, hon Mark Lowe, lead to a reduction in the levels of unemployment. On its own it will never reduce unemployment in South Africa.
This argument that I have put forward is a proposition about an automatic so-called trickle-down effect that would allegedly impact on the Third World economy, rather than on the First World economy. The task, rather, that faces us is to devise and implement a strategy to intervene in this Third World economy that is still in South Africa and to make a people’s economy a reality.
For this we require the transfer of resources, so that such transfer could empower working people and the unemployed, and we should combine the many decisions and programmes adopted by Government already in a sustainable way so that we can transform. There are many programmes already, such as the skills development programme, our education programme, the transformation of the financial sector that is already taking place, our programmes around infrastructure in the country, and the provisions we have introduced with regard to basic water and electricity. By combining these, we will be able to push back the frontiers of poverty, but we will also be able to transform this economy so that we are able to end underdevelopment and marginalisation.
As the ANC we pride ourselves on a long tradition of community co-operation and collectivism. Many of our members in our townships and rural areas will enhance these local initiatives with local ownership and will indeed empower our communities to contribute to broader community development and broad-based black empowerment for all, and not for a select few.
Of course this Bill on its own is not going to assist and I want to take this opportunity to address many of our people out there and black people in particular. It is going to be important, if you want to participate in the economy and to benefit from this Bill, to make sure that you get your identity document now. Get your ID so that you can participate in the economy. And make sure that you get your ID so that you register to vote and, of course, make sure that you vote for the ANC. [Interjections.]
I want to thank the department for helping the committee, as we worked for many, many hours and days to draft a Bill which in our view, hon Minister and the department, will be a product that will assist our people. We want to thank the Deputy Minister, the deputy director-general, my former mentor Lionel October, and the legal department for assisting us with this very crucial process of bringing a product to you today which we trust will work.
In conclusion, the global economy today is still characterised by division into two worlds, which many are denying. Indeed we are sitting with a First World and a Third World; one in the North, one in the South; one that is rich and developed and one that is poor and underdeveloped. As correctly stated by our President, South Africa contains this global phenomenon within its borders and therefore the resultant co-existence of two nations side by side. We have it in our power to use this Bill to end this division. This we will achieve through a protected process of engagement with the poor, in a people’s contract to push back the frontiers of poverty and eradicate underdevelopment. I thank you for your attention. [Applause.]
The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Chairperson and colleagues, I think we had this afternoon, at the beginning of these deliberations, a very graphic illustration of some of the political schizophrenia that will mean that certain parties in this country become increasingly irrelevant. I think the problem for a certain party - I don’t have to name it - is that they are very scared of anything done by this Government that will actually benefit the majority, because they think that that will strengthen the ANC, and they know that that will be a problem for them. So they end up attacking things which every other sensible person in this House takes as a fairly normal proposition, that we have to do something about black economic empowerment.
We got a long attack. The words stated here were, ``I as a youngster remember arguing and fighting against equal opportunity and merit. It did nothing then for the majority and it’s going to do nothing now for the majority.’’ This is merely an attempt to excuse the status quo. This is why this particular party sitting here cannot and will not make a contribution to change in this country.
What is interesting to me is that all other substantial parties, with the
exception of I Am Crazy'' andNA’’, support this. We all know it’s
complicated. We all know there may be certain reservations. But I think
everyone here has made it quite clear that they support the Bill.
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Hon Minister, there is a point of order. Can you take your seat please?
Mr D H M GIBSON: Mr Chairperson, on a point of order: The hon Minister referred to a particular hon member of the House and said ``I Am Crazy’’. Since that party is called the IAM, it’s quite clearly a reference to that party. I think it’s inappropriate and unparliamentary. Would you instruct the hon Minister to withdraw that statement? The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: It’s my understanding that the Minister did not name any particular member of a party. Therefore, I don’t think it’s unparliamentary, because it refers to a political party, not an individual member. Please continue, hon Minister.
The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Thank you very much, Chair. I concur with your ruling.
I would like to make one or two points regarding matters that were raised. Regarding the question of ministerial discretion, I really would urge the colleagues who raised it, hon Ngiba from the IFP and Cassie Aucamp from the NA, to look at what the Bill says. We are really trying to take a situation where, after consultation, we need some way of taking that and putting it in the public domain. That is what we are doing here. There is consultation. The Minister would then put codes of good practice out, as we do under Nedlac in the labour arena. So we are not looking at all sorts of issues coming out every five minutes. There’s a consultation period. We have lengthened that consultation period. Inputs can be made and we will have an advisory council as well to oversee this process.
Colleagues, I think it will be important for us to look at the process from here. I am taking it that this House will pass this Bill. The task team has been very valuable to me and the department and I have asked that we meet again in October. From the report made by the portfolio committee and from our own experience and exposure to many of the events in recent months, it is very clear that in the strategy document we need to spell out a number of other areas to bring about clarity in those areas. We therefore need to make certain amendments to those. We are hoping, as well, to benefit from the experience of the financial charter process, which has set itself the target of coming forward with the first drafts of that by the end of September.
This will allow us then to prepare for the institutional structure, for the advisory council. Once the President has put in place the Act, brought it into law, we appoint the advisory council. As I have indicated, we are working through the IDC and the NEF, to deal with some of the matters of finance that were raised by the hon Lockey, and in the meantime the NEF will continue with the existing programmes it has on venture capital.
Colleagues, my impression is, and I think it is confirmed by the task team, that the market is responding. The private sector is responding. Contrary to some of the nonsense we heard spoken about, there’s a great commitment and goodwill amongst all peoples of South Africa to make sure that this BEE does work and does transform the economy. I think it’s in our hands. The member is right, laws can’t do it. It’s in our hands to be committed to a new South Africa where everyone has an equitable and fair chance to be part of this economy, and I think the majority of this House are truly committed to that; the exceptions are sad. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
Question put: That the Bill be read a second time.
Division demanded.
The House divided:
AYES - 169: Abrahams, T; Abram, S; Arendse, J D; Bakker, D M; Baloyi, S F; Bapela, O; Benjamin, J; Beukman, F; Bhengu, F; Biyela, B P; Bloem, D V; Bogopane, H I; Booi, M S; Cachalia, I M; Carrim, Y I; Chalmers, J; Chiba, L; Chikane, M M; Cronin, J P; Cwele, S C; Daniels, N; Davies, R H; Dhlamini, B W; Diale, L N; Dlali, D M; Du Toit, D C; Durand, J; Dyani, M M Z; Erwin, A; Fankomo, F C; Geldenhuys, B L; Gerber, P A; Goosen, A D; Greyling, C H F; Gumede, D M; Hajaig, F; Hanekom, D A; Hendricks, L B; Hlengwa, M W; Hogan, B A; Jassat, E E; Jeffery, J H; Joemat, R R; Johnson, C B; Jordan, Z P; Kasrils, R; Kgauwe, Q J; Kgwele, L M; Komphela, B M; Koornhof, G W; Kotwal, Z; Lekgoro, M K; Lockey, D; Louw, S K; Luthuli, A N; Lyle, A G; Mabe, L L; Mabena, D C; Mabuyakhulu, V D; Madikiza, G; Magubane, N E; Mahlangu-Nkabinde, G L; Makasi, X C; Malumise, M M; Martins, B A D; Masala, M M; Mashimbye, J N; Masithela, N H; Masutha, M T; Mathebe, P M; Maunye, M M; Mbadi, L M; Mbombo, N D; Mbuyazi, L R; Mdlalose, M M; Mentor, M P; Mfundisi, I S; Middleton, N S; Mkono, D G; Mlangeni, A; Mnandi, P N; Mngomezulu, G P; Mnguni, B A; Modise, T R; Modisenyane, L J; Mofokeng, T R; Mogoba, M S; Mohamed, I J; Moloi, J; Moloto, K A; Moonsamy, K; Moropa, R M; Morutoa, M R; Moss, M I; Mothoagae, P K; Mpaka, H M; Mshudulu, S A; Mtsweni, N S; Mudau, N W; Mutsila, I; Mzondeki, M J G; Nair, B; Nash, J H; Ncinane, I Z; Ndou, R S; Ndzanga, R A; Nel, A C; Nene, N M; Newhoudt-Druchen, W S; Ngaleka, E; Ngcengwane, N D; Ngema, M V; Ngiba, B C; Ngubeni, J M; Nhleko, N P; Nhlengethwa, D G; Njobe, M A A; Nkabinde, N C; Nqodi, S B; Ntuli, B M; Nwamitwa-Shilubana, T L P; Nxumalo, S N; Olckers, M E; Olifant, D A A; Oosthuizen, G C; Phadagi, M G; Phala, M J; Pheko, S E; Rajbally, S; Ramakaba-Lesiea, M M; Rhoda, R T; Ripinga, S S; Robertsen, M O; Roopnarain, U; Routledge, N C; Rwexana, S P; Saloojee, E (Cassim); Schneeman, G D; Schoeman, E A; Seaton, S A; Seeco, M A; Sekgobela, P S; September, C C; September, R K; Sibande, M P; Sibiya, M S M; Sigwela, E M; Sikakane, M R; Sithole, D J; Sithole, P; Skhosana, W M; Solo, B M; Sonjica, B P; Sotyu, M M; Tarr, M A; Thabethe, E; Tinto, B; Tolo, L J; Tsheole, N M; Tshwete, P; Turok, B; Twala, N M; Van Wyk, J F; Van Wyk, N; Woods, G G; Xingwana, L M T; Xulu, M; Zondo, R P; Zulu, N E.
NOES - 36: Andrew, K M; Aucamp, C; Bell, B G; Borman, G M; Da Camara, M L; Davidson, I; Delport, J T; Ellis, M J; Farrow, S B; Gibson, D H M; Gore, V C; Grobler, G A J; Jankielsohn, R; Kalyan, S V; Le Roux, W J; Lee, T D; Lowe, C M; Maluleke, D K; McIntosh, G B D; Millin, T E; Moorcroft, E K; Morkel, C M; Nel, A H; Ntuli, R S; Opperman, S E; Pretorius, I J; Rabie, P J; Redcliffe, C R; Schalkwyk, P J; Schmidt, H C; Selfe, J; Semple, J A; Seremane, W J; Smuts, M; Van Deventer, F J; Van Niekerk, A I. ABSTENTIONS - 4: Blaas, A; Dudley, C; Green, L M; Swart, S N.
Question agreed to.
Bill accordingly read a second time.
LIQUOR BILL
(Second Reading debate)
The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Thank you very much, Chairperson. I think it’s about time that Ministers had shop stewards. It’s becoming a tough day. Connie, maybe you can help me. [Laughter.]
Madam Speaker and hon members, … [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Sorry, hon Minister, please continue.
The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: I was just checking that I got full time, Chairperson. They were trying to take some away from the Liquor Bill.
Chairperson and hon members, the Liquor Bill that has been tabled today has been long in the making, and is in a sense a building block in the concept of co-operative governance set out in the Constitution. There is no question that we needed a new regulatory dispensation in this industry. The issue was the arrangement of powers and responsibilities between the three spheres of government. The wait has been long, and the consultations with the provinces, various components of the industry and social groups have been intense, and sometimes circuitous. However, the final product is a better piece of legislation for all.
As you will recall, the Liquor Bill was previously introduced in and passed by Parliament in 1998.
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Hon Minister, will you give me a second? Order, hon members! Please be seated.
The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Thank you, Chairperson. I think maybe we should have a new section in this Liquor Bill which says that the bar will be closed when the Minister of Trade and Industry speaks. [Laughter.]
That Bill introduced the concept of registration of manufacturers, micromanufacturers, distributors and retailers or, in common parlance, the three-tier system. This meant the Bill also impacted on the powers of provinces and local government, which raised issues of concurrent and exclusive powers and the matter of co-operative governance.
To obtain clarity, the Bill was referred by the President to the Constitutional Court before its promulgation. That court found the Bill to be unconstitutional in some respects, in particular with regard to the jurisdictions of national and provincial governments, and ruled that the retail and micromanufacture of liquor were exclusive provincial jurisdictions.
After the Constitutional Court judgment was handed down, the process of redrafting the Liquor Bill was initiated, which culminated in the introduction of this new Liquor Bill in Parliament in May of this year. As I have indicated, this was an exhaustive process that involved many stakeholders in one or other form. The Bill does propose a new and more comprehensive regulatory structure for the industry, and it was not surprising that at public hearings on the Liquor Bill, a number of concerns about the Bill were again raised relating to the proposed implementation of a flexible three-tier system, the constitutionality of certain aspects of the Bill, and other technical issues.
The introduction of a flexible three-tier system understandably has proponents and detractors. Within the industry, this was an area of much attention, and we once again canvassed many of the issues dealt with in
- For Government, the intention was to regulate and largely separate the three tiers, within the industry, of manufacture, distribution and retail.
However, we have always been cognisant of the need for flexibility in this regard so as to meet different economic realities and needs. We have been pragmatic and not dogmatic on the matter, provided we know what is happening, and that we do effect a degree of economic separation of the three tiers. The issues are many and complex. We welcome the fact that the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry granted the DTI time to consider the technical matters that were raised, and consult with the liquor industry. I believe the time has been well-spent, and the Liquor Bill I am now introducing reflects broad agreement with the industry, addresses constitutional and technical matters that were raised and meets Government’s original intentions in a workable manner.
I will not repeat what I said in 1998 about the very special and somewhat pernicious history of the liquor industry in South Africa. However, we must not forget the reality that the history of liquor regulation in South Africa was an integral part of segregation. Legislation prevented black persons from legally entering the economic dimensions of the industry, and thus visited major social consequences on those persons. Liquor was used in the notorious ``dop system’’ as a means of payment, again with profound social consequences. The result was a dualism of massive economic concentration in size on the one hand, and an equally massive illegal industry that was very socially vulnerable on the other.
This was a sad and bad situation that we are bound to redress as far as is economically feasible in the present time. The work on this redress began in 1997 with the publication of the Liquor Policy. The stated objectives of that policy were to restructure the liquor industry and address the socioeconomic costs of alcohol abuse. This Bill seeks to give effect to these objectives, and to the principles of co-operative governance, and the requirements of the Constitution in terms of the respective responsibilities of national and provincial government and local government in the regulation of the liquor industry.
In addressing the socioeconomic costs of alcohol abuse, the Bill seeks to address these in a particular manner as set out in Chapter 2: restrictions on the supply of liquor to minors; certain restrictions on the advertising of liquor, particularly advertising targeting minors; the use of liquor as an inducement for employment, thus outlawing the ``dop system’’; the manufacture and supply of methylated spirits, and the prohibition of concoctions. In addition, in Chapter 3, the Bill requires manufacturers and distributors to submit a plan to combat the abuse of alcohol as part of their registration requirements.
In the restructuring of the industry, the Bill proposes the introduction of a flexible three-tier system which requires separate registration and regulation of the manufacture and distribution of liquor through national Government, and the registration and regulation of micromanufacturers and the retail sale of liquor through provincial government.
The Bill requires the Minister of Trade and Industry to evaluate the registration in terms of three main criteria: the commitment to BEE, the commitment to combating the abuse of alcohol and the impact of registration on new entry into the industry, diversity of ownership and competition in the industry balanced against the impact of employment, efficiency and exports. Based on the evaluation of the criteria, the Minister may impose conditions on the registration. However, the Bill allows the Minister to review the conditions of registration if the registrant registers as a retailer or micromanufacturer in provincial legislation, contravenes certain laws or fails to meet the conditions of its registration. Chapters 4 and 5 provide for inspection powers, offences and penalties.
I think that, in an important development, the Bill gives expression to co- operative governance by creating the National Liquor Policy Council. The council is an intergovernmental forum headed by the Minister and constituted by the member of the executive council responsible for liquor licensing in each province. The council’s functions are to develop national norms and standards for the liquor industry, develop national policy in respect of the liquor industry, and promote intergovernmental relations.
We have taken account of the need for a transitional mechanism between the existing situation and the new Act. I believe that this Liquor Bill gives expression to the objectives of our 1997 Liquor Policy by providing mechanisms to intervene in the structure of the industry where necessary, to create conditions facilitating new entry and black economic empowerment, and to combat the socioeconomic consequences of alcohol abuse through certain public interest prohibitions and the development of a sustainable, responsible liquor industry.
Yet again, let me express my thanks to the portfolio committee which has helped us to steer this very difficult piece of legislation up to this point. Thanks go to my provincial colleagues and their officials for all their hard work. Thanks go to the DTI team for their hard work, with more to come as we set up the institutional capacity to implement the new Act. I shall also say a special word of thanks to many in the industry and to various groups that went out of their way to ensure that we address the economic need and reality whilst ensuring social responsibility.
I commend this Bill to the House. Thank you. [Applause.]
Mr C M LOWE: Thank you, Chairman. The Bill claims to have both a social and a commercial objective: Its social aim is to reduce the massive socioeconomic cost of South Africa’s widespread alcohol abuse, and its commercial aim is to develop a responsible and sustainable liquor industry that welcomes new participants, diversity of ownership and an ethos of social responsibility.
This second objective is essentially for the industry to restructure, empower and transform. But, unlike the social aim, exactly how the commercial one will be met is far from clear.
The need to combat and reduce the socioeconomic and other costs of alcohol abuse in South Africa is an important one that stems from decades of shameful apartheid legislation, including the current 1989 Liquor Act, and stretching back to Lord Milner’s Liquor Proclamation over a century ago.
Previous liquor policies were overly interventionist; they were racist and patronising, intended to at first prevent and then minimise access to liquor by black South Africans as both consumers and entrepreneurs. After 1960, in a failed effort to control the burgeoning illegal liquor outlets in locations and townships, the apartheid regime allowed blacks to consume liquor, provided it was purchased from government-owned outlets in these designated areas, or from a special window in white-owned liquor stores.
The abuse of liquor as a means of payment to workers, as the Minister has commented, particularly in the wine industry, is equally well-documented, with a sad and destructive effect still seen very evidently every weekend across this province and across this country.
The department justifies the imposition of a regulated framework on the liquor industry on the grounds that it will prevent alcohol abuse. We wish it were so, but the ease with which alcohol can be obtained in South Africa, despite already heavy restrictions, suggests this argument holds little water.
The key to the previous regime’s racist liquor policy was strict licensing and regulation, and we concur with the Free Market Foundation that in a nonracial and democratic South Africa, it is profoundly inappropriate to perpetuate this legacy. If we claim to be a free society with a government that treats its citizens like responsible adults, capable of voting and enjoying the rewards, risks and responsibilities of freedom, then we should reflect that in our liquor policy.
The DA believes that restrictions on the sale or distribution of alcohol must only be targeted at the real problem: abuse of alcohol. The sale of alcohol to underage children or obviously intoxicated adults must be strictly prohibited and strongly policed, preferably by provincial and municipal authorities which are best placed to ensure success. Other restrictions on public health grounds may often be justified, but they must be clearly defined, not open to ministerial discretion, and must be governed by the Departments of Health and of Social Welfare, rather than by Trade and Industry.
Otherwise, market forces should govern the organisation of the liquor industry, as with virtually all other consumer goods, subject to existing anticompetitive behaviour and quality control legislation. Ultimately, it should be for provinces to decide how best to structure and regulate their liquor industries.
Despite the Bill recognising the Constitutional Court ruling making the licensing of retailers, including the elusive shebeens and tavern operators, a provincial function, we believe that it still tries to regulate in areas of provincial competence, and to prescribe to provinces what they must do when it is unnecessary to do so. Our Constitution is unambiguous about liquor licensing being an exclusive provincial competence and Government should respect this clear intent and not try to prescribe or impose its wishes on provincial governments. The Bill grants the Minister discretionary powers of intervention, regulation, review and appeal, but discriminates in the concurring powers allocated to provincial MECs by requiring them to control the issuing of retail licences through a regulatory mechanism of a board under the Public Finance Management Act. If the Minister can take decisions without reference to a board or a council, then why can the MEC not do the same at provincial level?
The DA is also concerned that the National Liquor Policy Council will become a body intended to enforce central Government’s views on individual provinces, thereby violating their provincial competencies.
Again, we agree with the Free Market Foundation’s view that provinces should have the constitutional right to determine their own liquor policy with the sole proviso that it is not in conflict with the general provisions about the sale of liquor to minors, sale during confined hours, sale to intoxicated people and nuisance law.
Turning to the commercial objectives of the Bill, more than 80% of South Africa’s beer consumption takes place in the townships where most of the country’s 200 000 shebeens - more than 90% of all retail liquor outlets - are found. Here is an ideal opportunity to reverse the racial restrictions of the past and bring township entrepreneurs into the mainstream of the liquor industry through genuine and widespread black economic empowerment.
And so, in its original form, the Bill sought to legislate a restructuring programme started by Government in 1995 with the Liquor Forum, a broad- based consultative process. It disentangled the marketing and distribution arms of liquor by creating an independently owned distribution mechanism free of producer control, thereby separating ownership of the supply chain to ensure that it was not further entrenched in the existing monopolies. Thus, wholesalers could choose from where to source their product, breaking the noose of tied-pricing arrangements.
The Bill gave the manufacturers who owned the distribution system three years to disinvest and was generally welcomed by thousands of small, mostly black, retailers who recognised the opportunities it offered them. Understandably, it was condemned by the major industry players and, despite nearly eight years in the formulation, was suddenly withdrawn by the department in late May, ostensibly for further consultation with the industry.
At the time, the DTI claimed that the reason was mainly to reconsider the social responsibility and constitutional issues of the Bill, and that the three-tier system which premised the entire industry restructure was non- negotiable. Well, so much for that. One commentator subsequently noted that they might as well have just said, ``Read my lips’’.
The amending Bill has been called a pale copy of its apartheid predecessor. Significantly, it accommodates the industry monopolies by allowing cross holdings in the manufacturing and distribution sectors. Their ability as a monopoly to control the trade rests on their control at the wholesale distribution level, and this effectively keeps the industry in the same few hands, leaving any restructuring of it entirely at their and the Minister’s discretion - totally contradictory to Government’s BEE strategy.
Some commentators have seriously wondered if the Minister hasn’t been bought by an industry still buried in apartheid legislation, whose key players are now able to perpetuate the status quo inherited and keep empowerment and transformation at bay, or at least on their terms, until such time as their overseas operations and markets substantially reduce the significance of the South African one. Because the Bill regulates manufacturing and distribution, it stymies any chance of provincial legislatures creating new empowerment opportunities for their retail trade.
Irrespective of any operating efficiencies currently in distribution networks and channels, the point is that the Bill entrenches control of the manufacturing and distribution and, to a lesser extent, the retailing sectors. It squanders a unique opportunity for black economic empowerment and to further the interests, such as they are, of thousands of small black businesses who remain shut out. It misses an enormous opportunity to create new jobs and force illegal shebeen owners to get licenses and start paying taxes.
Given today’s debate around the BEE Bill, the irony and duplicity of the Government’s position on the Liquor Bill is staggering. The damage to the detail in its amending Bill is so great as to all but destroy the original intent.
The DA strongly supports the Bill’s aims, but we disagree, at times fundamentally, with many of the proposals and mechanisms for their fulfilment and attainment. We will oppose the Bill. I thank you.
Dr R H DAVIES: Mr Chairperson, I’m not going to respond in detail to Mr Lowe. I’ll refer to some points as I go along. I want to begin by elaborating on a point which was made by the Minister in his introduction, namely that the history of liquor in this country has been inextricably linked to the history of exploitation and oppression associated with colonialism and apartheid.
At the end of the nineteenth century, liquor was actively promoted among the people of so-called African reserves, as a means of creating a need for money income that would induce people from these areas to make themselves available as low-paid migrant workers in the mining industry. Liquor consumption was also actively promoted as a mechanism for recruitment of labour for white-owned farms, and even in this province, in particular, was supplied to workers in lieu of money wages under the notorious dop system.
When mining capital later found that other recruiting mechanisms and devices had become sufficiently entrenched and that the disadvantages of liquor abuse on labour productivity in the mining industry outweighed the advantages in terms of recruitment, it led a crusade which resulted in a policy of prohibition directed at African people.
For much of the twentieth century, the sale of liquor to African people was illegal, except for the sale of sorghum beer in government-controlled beerhalls that served as mechanisms of social control and to raise revenue for so-called bantu administration.
It’s not surprising, therefore, that these beerhalls became targets, from time to time, of protests and mass action, most notably by women, in the 1950s and 1960s. It’s not surprising either that a thriving illegal trade emerged, with shebeens becoming a more acceptable outlet than government- run beerhalls. In the atmosphere of extreme restriction on commercial activities by African people, shebeens indeed became an important way of generating income for a significant number of people.
At the same time, policy in relation to liquor manufacturing was closely associated with struggles between different vested interests in the white power bloc and the subject, therefore, of much partisan state intervention. Excise tax policy favoured politically well-connected wine farmers over the near-monopoly beer brewer in this country.
In the 1980s, when the prospects for wine exports were limited by sanctions and international isolation, grocery shops were allowed to apply for a grocer’s wine licence, which was not available to other products. Monopoly power was used, most notably by the beer brewer, to gain control of retail and wholesale outlets and to exclude competitors’ products. The system of liquor licensing provided for in pre-1994 legislation, and more particularly in the 1989 Liquor Act, was expensive, cumbersome, bureaucratic and subject to partisanship.
Marx, quoting Hegel, once remarked that the past weighs down on the present like a nightmare. This is patently so in the case of liquor. We have inherited a reality in which alcohol abuse still remains an extremely serious social problem. The impact of this reaches far beyond the problem of individual addiction found in all countries and recognised by the World Health Organisation as a clinical illness.
In addition to alcoholism, we confront serious abuse, inextricably intertwined with poverty and inequality, and indeed reinforcing poverty and inequality. According to a recent communication from the Western Cape provincial government, half of all our natural deaths in South Africa involve people with high levels of alcohol in their bloodstreams.
The dop system may be dead as far as the formal provision of liquor in lieu of wages is concerned, but unfortunately it persists in some cases in the form of the supply of liquor as an inducement or incentive in the labour process. Foetal alcohol syndrome, which is the intergenerational transfer of the effects of alcohol abuse, is unfortunately rife in areas where the dopsystem was well established.
Ninety-five percent of the retail distribution of liquor takes place outside of the officially regulated licensing system provided for under the 1989 Act. A submission to portfolio committee hearings from the Voluntary Association of Shebeeners in the Western Cape indicated that less than a quarter of the estimated number of shebeens in this province were subject to the association’s voluntary code of conduct, preventing prostitution and drug selling, among other things.
The liquor manufacturing and distribution industry remains highly concentrated, and there are significant barriers to entry for newcomers. This, Mr Lowe, I regret to say, is not a context in which free market principles can be appropriate. This is and has to be a regulated industry.
The Bill before the House is the product of a long process, which was described by the Minister, which included profound debates on the appropriate regulatory framework. As the Minister indicated, a Liquor Bill was adopted by Parliament in 1998 and referred by President Mandela to the Constitutional Court for an opinion, due to the fact that the Constitution defines liquor licensing as an exclusive provincial competence.
I’m not sure that Mr Lowe understood the Constitutional Court ruling, because the Constitutional Court upheld the principle that national Government could intervene and regulate the production of a potentially harmful substance, as well as set norms and standards for provincial licensing. But the Constitutional Court ruled that the mode and proceedings for licensing of retail and micromanufacturing must be an exclusive provincial competence.
The basic principles of the 1998 Bill, in the context of that rule, are carried forward in the Bill which we have before us today. One principle is the establishment of a flexible three-tier system in which, by and large and with some exceptions, those involved in the liquor industry will be able to receive a registration to be a manufacturer, a distributor or a retailer of liquor products, but not all three. The other principle is that all players in the industry must abide by norms and standards of good practice.
It was a disappointment to many of us in the portfolio committee that the public hearings did not attract many submissions on public interest provisions. However, I’m happy to be able to report to the House that committee members applied their minds and actively engaged on these issues, resulting, I believe, in their significant strengthening and improvement.
The Bill before us seeks comprehensively to prohibit the supply of alcohol by employers as any part of the establishment or maintenance of an employment relationship. The Bill bans the sale of methylated spirits or any similar product as liquor. It also prohibits the addition of any impotable substance to alcoholic beverages.
Other public interest provisions include a ban on false and misleading advertising, the prohibition of liquor sales to minors and a provision that the Minister may consult with the Health Minister on possible health warnings on alcoholic products. Beyond this, all participants in the industry are placed under a specific obligation to contribute to the combating of alcohol abuse.
As indicated earlier, the Constitutional Court ruled that the competence of national Government in the issuing of liquor registrations is limited to manufacturing and distribution, which is indeed logical in view of the structure of the industry. Registration of retail and micromanufacturing is an exclusive provincial competence.
All observers appear to agree that the biggest challenge facing the regulation of the liquor industry lies in the retail sphere, where 95% of current sales are estimated to be taking place within unlicensed outlets. Although this will have to proceed on the basis of provincial law, the Bill before us sets up a framework for intergovernmental co-operation and sets criteria that will hopefully find echoes at all levels.
Registration to conduct activity in the liquor industry will be granted in return for specific commitments and obligations. These include commitments to contribute to combating alcohol abuse and to promoting black economic empowerment. The Minister is also obliged to evaluate any application in terms of the extent to which a registration will restrict or promote new entry, will create jobs and will promote diversity of ownership.
The Bill before us, as was the case with the original draft of this Bill, provides for a flexible three-tier system. The norm will be to fall within one of the three tiers, but there is provision for some latitude. This was the subject of most submissions that the committee received from interested parties in the industry. It led to a decision to allow the department and key players to go away and see if they could reach an agreement on the mode of operation of this flexibility.
The Bill before us today is the product of the process which I believe has improved the Bill, not led to its departure from these principles, by clarifying the extent of the flexibility and the basis on which it will be applied. Basically, a manufacturer will be able to sell liquor it has manufactured to a retailer as well as to a distributor, if the terms of its registration permit this. The Bill makes it clear that in order to access this flexibility, applicants will be required to meet a higher threshold, in terms of the criteria for registration, than those who do not seek it.
This Bill, I believe, will be a step towards a central regulation of an industry producing a potentially harmful product, but an industry, also, which can contribute to exports, to income and to jobs. I therefore have pleasure in commending it to the House. Thank you. [Applause.]
Mr B C NGIBA: Mr Chairperson, the Bill before us today has travelled a long, arduous and sometimes tortuous journey. This journey started with an initial joint review of the statutes dealing with the manufacture, distribution and sale of liquor by the national and provincial departments in 1994, and culminated in the tabling of the first Liquor Bill in Parliament in 1998.
After its adoption, the Bill was referred by the President to the Constitutional Court to get clarity on its constitutionality. In the end, some parts of that Bill were found to be unconstitutional and a new Bill was drafted to correct those problems. In a nutshell, that is where we stand today.
In essence, the Bill provides for: Firstly, the establishment of national norms and standards in order to maintain economic unity within the liquor industry; secondly, essential national standards and minimum standards required for the rendering of liquor-related services; thirdly, the regulation of the micromanufacture and retail sale of liquor for consumption by default; and fourthly, measures to promote co-operative governance in the area of liquor regulation.
The IFP welcomes the fact that the Bill does not provide for the regulation of the micromanufacture or sale of liquor for consumption except by default. We also welcome the fact that the Bill allows provincial governments to legislate on liquor matters, except for a number of public interest prohibitions, provisions relating to vertical integration and national norms and standards.
Although the IFP is a party known for its commitment to the greater devolution of powers and functions to the provinces, we are satisfied that the national norms and standards are necessary for the maintenance of economic realities in an industry that provides large-scale employment throughout the country. The effects of providing services in the liquor industry may vary depending on the environment, but we acknowledge that minimum standards should apply across the national territory.
Despite the fears of other parties, the IFP still supports the creation of a National Liquor Policy Council on which the Minister of Trade and Industry and the provincial MECs will serve. In establishing national norms and standards, it is clear that a national/provincial co-ordinating and policy formulating body will be required. This body will no doubt be responsible for ensuring that the principles of co-operative governance enshrined in the Constitution are consistently applied and enforced.
The objectives of the Liquor Bill are twofold: Firstly, it has a social and health policy component in that it seeks to reduce the socioeconomic and other costs of alcohol consumption to the population and the country as a whole. This is a laudable objective but one has to wonder whether it goes far enough in its scope or whether this objective would not be better served in dedicated health legislation. Standards and norms are one thing, but as hon members will know, individual behaviour in relation to alcohol consumption is quite another.
Secondly, the Bill has an economic component in that it seeks to promote access for new participants into the liquor industry, thereby creating diversity of ownership. This objective cannot be faulted in principle, and we believe that the Bill will play a decisive role in this regard. However, care must be taken not to fragment our national goal of black economic empowerment through a plethora of statutes that set different conditions for different sectors of the economy. It is exactly this fragmentation potential that has led to the adoption of the BEE framework legislation earlier today.
The IFP will support the Liquor Bill. Thank you.
Dr R T RHODA: Chairperson, in the Abuse of Dependence-producing Substances and Rehabilitation Centres Act, Act 41 of 1971, alcohol is defined as a dependence-producing substance.
The first alcoholic liquor factory in South Africa was called De Eerste
Fabrieken in de Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek'' -The First Factory in the
South African Republic’’. In 1883 President Kruger personally declared it
open and gave it the curious name of ``Volkshoop’’ - people’s hope. Today,
according to the latest statistics, South Africans consume more than five
billion litres of alcoholic beverages every year, which is 120 litres per
person.
I think we all know the background of this Bill, and I’m not going to repeat what other members have said. The impetus behind the formulation of the new Liquor Bill, policy and legislation is primarily twofold: Firstly, to ensure the effective regulation of the liquor industry, particularly the sale of liquor in order to minimise the potentially harmful consequences of liquor on our society, thereby promoting an ethos of social responsibility in the industry; and secondly, to address the historical legacy of liquor regulation in South Africa through restructuring the liquor industry.
As the hon Minister has already mentioned, one has to recognise the historical context of the liquor industry and its evolution in South Africa, as well as its legacy of segregation and economic concentration. The structure of the liquor industry and its ownership is the direct result of the history of liquor regulation in South Africa.
Various forms of legislation were promulgated to prohibit blacks from producing and obtaining liquor in the past. As a result, a large illegal and unregulated industry was created - a monster in fact. More than a quarter of a million illegal liquor outlets, which are today called shebeens and taverns, emerged, while the formal industry became concentrated in the hands of a few.
The former regime adopted an approach that resulted in constant raids, harassment, arrests, prosecutions and imprisonment of blacks. It also precipitated an inordinate amount of social decay, family violence, township violence, alcohol-related diseases, crime, accidents and work- related problems in the black community.
We must recognise that liquor, as a potentially harmful dependence- producing substance, needs much stricter regulation. We need to regulate the manufacture, distribution and sale of liquor with a flexible three-tier system and, as far as possible, ensure more effective empowerment of the disadvantaged sector of our population. Of course, we also need to ensure compliance and imposition of severe penalties for violations.
The Bill also introduces a new element, the establishment of the National Liquor Policy Council, which will consist of the Minister of Trade and Industry and the relevant members of the executive councils of the provinces.
Finally, the constitutional concerns and reservations expressed in 1999 have been addressed in the Bill. So it is now over to our nine provinces also to play their part in reducing the socioeconomic and other costs of alcohol consumption, we hope with as much uniformity as possible.
In closing, the New NP supports the Bill. Thank you. [Applause.] Mr S N SWART: Chairman, hon Minister, the objectives of this Bill, particularly those pertaining to preventing alcohol abuse and the accompanying socioeconomic costs, are welcomed and supported by the ACDP. I wish, however, to focus on the issue of closed days, today.
Whilst the ACDP fully appreciates that the retail sector is the sole jurisdiction of provinces, I would implore provinces and NCOP delegates to ensure that provincial legislation retains the concept of closed days, namely Christmas Day, Good Friday and Sundays, prohibiting the sale of liquor by retailers such as corner cafés, supermarkets and Seven-Eleven.
In the 1997 Constitutional Court case of Lawrence and Others versus the Minister of Trade and Industry , the Constitutional Court upheld the then applicable Liquor Act that prohibited such stores from selling liquor on those days. The then Attorney-General stated that there was a direct relationship between the consumption of alcohol and violent crime, and that if restrictions on the times at which and the types of liqour which could be sold by supermarkets were removed, there would be an increase in the consumption of liquor to the prejudice of the community.
The Constitutional Court then found that liquor was in fact a potentially harmful substance and that the excessive consumption of liquor was universally regarded as a social evil. It is linked to crime, disturbance of the public order, impairment of road safety, damage to health, and has other derelicterious social and economic consequences.
Hon Minister, during this case you relied on a Christian as an expert witness. Marcel Christian was her name, and she said that a large body of recent research studies had found that the relaxation of controls over availability, such as expansion of the type, number of outlets, extended days and hours of operation, etc, not only encouraged consumption among modest drinkers but also among so-called heavy drinkers.
In view of this finding of the Constitutional Court, as well as the stated objectives of the Bill, the ACDP strongly recommends that closed days be included in the provincial legislation that will regulate the retail sector. I thank you. [Time expired.]
Ms N C NKABINDE: Chair, hon Minister and hon members, the importance of properly regulating the liquor industry is beyond doubt. In economic terms the industry generates billions of rands a year in turnover and provides employment for thousands of South Africans. As a sector of the economy, this industry faces the same challenges as other sectors to allow fair and equitable participation for all stakeholders, especially for entrants from previously disadvantaged communities. In social terms, the proper regulation of liquor in order to avoid abuse and a host of social ills is vital.
It is imperative that stringent monitoring of the provisions of clauses 8, 9 and 10 is implemented. The employment of minors, the practice of substituting remuneration for liquor, the enticement of minors to use liquor through advertising, and the selling of liquor to minors are all matters that strike at the very core of our social fabric. These are abuses which must once and for all be eradicated from our society.
We agree with the high standards set in Chapter 3 of the Bill for registration in respect of manufacturing and/or distributing liquor. The provisions of Chapters 4 and 5 to ensure compliance and penalise offenders are necessary and show that the basic intention of Chapter 3 and the Bill as a whole will not be undermined.
There are those who would argue that the industry is entitled to regulate itself and that Government would begin overregulating if it pursues this Bill. We disagree with this argument that seems to propose that when it comes to a potentially disruptive substance such as liquor, we can sit back and believe that economics do not become an overriding motivation that casts social responsibility aside in the pursuit of profit.
The UDM supports the Bill.
Dr S E M PHEKO: Chairman, the PAC welcomes many aspects of this Bill. For instance, clause 4 states that a person may not manufacture liquor unless he or she is registered as a manufacturer in terms of this Bill, or sell liquor without being licensed.
Clause 5 deals with the concoctions used in liquor which are dangerous to human health. Some of those mentioned are isishimane, qediviki, skokiaan, and barberton. Our only question is: Are such dangerous drinks limited only to African brewers? Are there no other people who brew health-destroying liquor?
Clause 10 prohibits the sale of liquor to minors. Indeed, minors ought to be drinking from the fountains of education instead of being destroyed by liquor prematurely. The Bill also prohibits the sale of liquor near schools. The PAC thinks this is a good thing.
Clause 9 prohibits drunken behaviour on registered premises. Clause 10 prohibits the consumption of liquor on any road, street, lane or vacant land in an urban area. The establishment of these national standards is essential.
It must be observed that excessive use of liquor has never built a nation. This Bill, however, could contribute to the promotion of the economic empowerment of the majority population of the have-nots if the suppliers, and ultimately the producers, are African businessmen and -women. Africans are too often consumers and a market for others who enrich themselves at their expense.
The provision for inspection of premises in clause 32, to investigate complaints, monitor and enforce compliance, is essential.
The PAC supports this Bill. [Applause.]
Miss S RAJBALLY: Malibongwe igama lamakhosikazi! [Praise the name of the women!] Thank you, Chairperson.
The Department of Trade and Industry and the provincial departments have a great responsibility jointly managing and regulating the Liquor Bill, taking into consideration the procedures in terms of section 76(1) of the Constitution, since it involves an intervention in terms of section 14(2) of the Constitution.
The MF is, however, very concerned about how the Bill will deal with the community where unlicensed operations take place and liquor is supplied to minors. Alcohol has become the norm today. However, the extensive communication with the industries and other stakeholders through provincial workshops and the national media is greatly welcomed. Hopefully this will alleviate some of the above problems in the community.
It is also encouraging to note that sufficient funding is available in the current budget for the additional staff required to perform the licensing and inspection functions. The establishment of the National Liquor Policy Council, which will consist of the Minister of Trade and Industry and members of the executive councils of provinces, is a move in the right direction.
The MF supports the Liquor Bill and wishes the Minister and his council every success in their endeavours. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Mnu J MOLOI: Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Ministers, hon members, today we present before the House the Liquor Bill.
Ezindaweni zasemakhaya noma khona emadolobheni lapho kufudukele khona abansundu ngenxa yokufuna imisebenzi, kuyaye kuthi uma sekuphunyulwe kuhleziwe kusha ingxoxo, kube khona okubekwa phakathi kwenkundla nokhamba lugcwele. Leso isiphuzo sabantu esibizwa ngokuthi umqombothi.
Emishadweni nasemigidini uma kuhlangenwe, kujatshuliwe, kufinywa ngendololwane kusho nengoma - not with instruments, not with bass guitars and not with the organ (hhayi ngezinsimbi, hhayi ngezigingci nange ogani) kodwa ngehubo elihlanganisiwe nokushaya izandla. Lapho sesiyagiya futhi sikhomba ngophakathi. Sishaya indlamu kusho nomqombothi ovovwe ngezandla, wavuma, wakhihliza amagwebu. Siyakuzwela wena ongakwazi ukuvova. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[Mr J MOLOI: In rural areas or even in cities, where African migrant workers get together, they often sit down, relax and chat while having something to eat. The food is usually accompanied by a calabash of African beer. Shame on you if you do not know how to brew it!
At weddings and festivities people meet to celebrate and enjoy a meal and some music together - not with instruments, not with bass guitars and not with an organ, but with a song composed together and applause. There we dance and enjoy. We perform the African dance and drink perfectly home- brewed and bubbling sorghum beer. [Applause.]]
This process is referred to as manufacturing'' in terms of this Bill. A
famous way for Africans to celebrate will never be complete without the
famous traditional African beer. That is why we find people like Yvonne
Chakachaka singingWeMaDlamini uphi umqombothi’’ [MaDlamini where is
the African beer'',] because this drink brings joy. When such activities
take place, it is referred to asmanufacturing of liquor’’ and in this
case the manufacturing of African beer for consumption. It is for private
consumption.
Gone are the days when the police would harass our people just for having
fun and unwinding. No more will it happen that this delicious drink is
spilt on the ground while manufacturers are arrested. If you manufacture
for consumption, this Government protects you. Songs such as Nanka
amaphoyisa azongena endlini mama, khawuleza'' [The police are about to
enter the house, mama, hurry up’’] will only refer to the past.
What should be clear, even to larger industries, is that manufacturing should be understood purely as manufacturing and does not automatically mean importing, since manufacturing and importing are two separate issues. Again, manufacturing for the purpose of selling will thus be regulated under micromanufacturing, ie, for smaller quantities.
This Government would be irresponsible if trading or business in liquor could not be regulated. As much as liquor cannot be prohibited, it is important to regulate the selling of liquor so that the industry does not become laissez faire or a free for all.
In order for us to understand the Liquor Bill, it is important, of course, to do some revision of the background of this Bill. Efforts to drive the new Liquor Bill started in 1994. That Bill was tabled in Parliament in August 1998, but ended up in the Constitutional Court in terms of section 84(2) of the Constitution, on 2 November of the same year.
The Constitutional Court ruled that the Bill was unconstitutional in certain respects - not all of the Bill but certain aspects of the Bill. The Constitutional Court was of the view that the national Government had the power to regulate the liquor industry but not liquor licensing, a function regarded as an exclusive provincial legislative competence, unless it was necessary to do so under section 44 of the Constitution. Accordingly, it was constitutional for the national Government to regulate the manufacture and distribution of liquor by establishing a single system of registration nationally.
On the other hand, the regulation of the micromanufacture and retail of liquor was the exclusive preserve of provincial government, unless there were compelling reasons for national Government to intervene. The amendment of the Liquor Bill was thus drafted in order to match the constitutionality of the Liquor Act of 1989, as the Bill had to comply with the recent Constitutional Court judgment on this matter.
As a result, the Bill in front of us now structures the liquor industry in the following categories: in terms of manufacturing, distribution and the retail sale of liquor. The distinction between a manufacturer and micromanufacturer is determined by the volume of liquor manufactured. The principal tool of regulation of the liquor industry is the registration of those who make, distribute and sell liquor. Accordingly, the Bill requires all manufacturers, distributors and sellers to be registered. The registration of micromanufacturers and retail sellers of liquor is dealt with by the provincial liquor authorities established under the provincial legislation, or in the absence of such, the provision of default applies.
Pending the appointment of the members of the provincial liquor authorities, the Liquor Board established under the Liquor Act of 1989 is deemed to be the authority contemplated in the provincial legislation of the default registration, as the case may be.
Again, the Bill, in line with the decision of the Constitutional Court, divides responsibility for these tiers of industry between national and provincial governments. It treats manufacturing and distribution of liquor as a national domain. The registration of manufacturers and distributors constitutes a national competence. The Bill recognises the micromanufacturer and the retail sale of liquor as a provincial competency. It further creates a national licensing function for the manufacture and wholesale sale of liquor, in line with the Constitutional Court judgment, and it sets out norms and standards.
The new Bill provides for a policy formulation and co-ordination mechanism in the form of a policy council, which consists of the Minister of Trade and Industry and the members of the executive councils of the provinces, giving official practical expression and content to the concept of co- operative legislative governance, as set out in Chapter 3 of the Constitution.
The whole process of registering ministerial approval essentially means that a person may not be both the manufacturer and distributor or seller - or all three for that matter - but can be one. An example is the SAB, which controls approximately 97% of the beer market and proves to be a monopoly. There is no room for other businesses to enter the market. This becomes a good example of nonstate intervention, with the hope that the market will create equality in the economy.
The principal reason for this policy is the dilution of the concentration of power in manufacturing, limiting the vertical integration of the industry and the creation of opportunities for new entrants to the industry, particularly those drawn from the historically disadvantaged groups. The separation was thus aimed at those corporations that use their position at one level to purposely exclude others.
A distributor may only sell to a retailer. A retailer may only sell to a consumer. The terms and conditions included in the licence will guard against any unfair competition. The Bill has to ensure that the inequalities that currently exist are not perpetuated, and the costs involved in ensuring this also have to be considered. The Minister may permit a manufacturer to distribute its own products to retailers under limited circumstances if it serves economic efficiency. However, the Minister has to consider the efficiency created and the need for transparency in making the decision.
Provincial hearings were held and all provinces presented various inputs and cases. The processes of implementing varied from one province to the other. The pace of implementation happens to be advanced in some provinces while others are still at the research phase. Hopefully today’s debate will serve as an impetus in accelerating such research. There are provinces which still argued that national Parliament had to conclude the Liquor Bill in order for them to kickstart, or proceed with, their process.
Gauteng, for example, is two years into having enacted the liquor law and managed to share its experiences on the implementation thereof. As a result, this exercise demonstrated critically the unequal ability and capacity of various provinces on issues of development.
As a responsible society we must remain accountable to the values and norms that we have set. Accountability has to be vested in the responsible citizens who will deal with the liquor legislation in a way that does not damage our society.
We appreciate the provision in the Bill that stipulates that liquor cannot be sold to minors. To us it is a moral issue that we fully support.
As much as umqombothi is a traditional African beer, famous and loved by its fans, it would be wrong to dilute impotable substances inherently harmful and unfit for human consumption. We cannot associate imbamba, which is diluted with battery acid and other harmful substances, with umqombothi, a healthy drink. We need to be clear in our minds that all substances in liquor inherently unfit for human consumption are illegal, and indulging in this will be in violation of the law.
In conclusion, this Bill encapsulates the policy principle previously agreed to with stakeholders, but addresses the constitutional matters raised. We are glad to support a Bill that encourages applicants to commit themselves to a broad black economic empowerment that encourages new entrants into the liquor industry and creates jobs. Furthermore, applicants’ proposal to combat alcohol abuse will indicate value attached to human nature rather than unscrupulously making money without regard for the human factors.
The ANC supports this Bill. Thank you. [Applause.]
The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Chairperson, I think that the inputs of the majority in this House have supported the general direction in which we have been taking this industry. I think there is clear majority support for the concept that this industry should be regulated, that it’s correct that it should be regulated. It does have particular features, and the product that it produces does have individual and social effects.
I think that the majority of sensible people in this House are quite clear that we should regulate this. The issue at stake was how this should be done within the parameters of our Constitution which, quite correctly, apportions different powers to different levels of government. I believe we have met our obligations in providing for that regulation, both in terms of its industrial dimensions, and in terms of ensuring that there are public interest concerns that are met and complied with.
I am also very pleased that the hon Moloi has raised what I think is a very important aspect, and that is that provided we do keep this within regulated bounds, we are in fact opening a whole new set of prospects and possibilities as to what the liquor industry could be and what it could achieve.
Many of you have probably already seen the possibilities that are emerging in various micromanufacturers throughout this country, producing traditional brews of various types, producing beers, wines and many other products. As I stressed, provided we keep this within the parameters of regulation, we are truly opening up a new set of experiences and possibilities for the people of South Africa, and all its people, not just industrial conglomerates.
You may have noticed that, as was quite predictable, the spokesperson from the DA in effect accused me of being corrupt. His words were that there were people who felt I had been bought. Mr Lowe, I find this contemptuous conduct, but I cannot expect you to understand the measure of who I am or the measure of the comrades that I have walked with. But, Chairperson, it does seem to me that these kinds of gratuitous accusations of corruption will only detract from the gravitas of this House. I don’t expect him to understand. He’s a little twerp whose done nothing in his past. [Interjections.]
But, I think for the House, if every time you don’t like something that is done by someone else or you disagree with the policy, you say he’s bought. Now, I don’t know if he’s bought by the liquor industry or not …
Mr I J PRETORIUS: Chairperson, in my view, the word ``twerp’’ is unparliamentary, and I request you to make a ruling on that. [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Seeing that you’ve raised it, I want to address Mr Lowe.
I did hear Mr Lowe saying that the Minister had been bought, in whichever language. I would like to ask Mr Lowe that, if that is what he said, he withdraw it. [Interjections.]
The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Don’t deny it now.
Mr C M LOWE: Mr Chairman, if you’d been listening to my speech, you’d have heard that I said that ``Some commentators had said that the Minister had been bought’’. I did not say that the Minister had been bought. I was simply repeating what some commentators in the media had said. There is nothing to withdraw.
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Hon member, I must ask you to withdraw that comment.
Mr C M LOWE: Mr Chairman, if I didn’t say it, it’s impossible for me to withdraw it. [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Hon Lowe, from what I heard at the time, and we had made a note of it, we were convinced that that was what you said. Now, I would like you to withdraw the comment that the Minister had been bought.
Mr C M LOWE: With respect, Chairman, then you’ll have to check the record, because I did not say that. So, I need the record to be checked. I cannot withdraw something I did not say. [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Hon Lowe, I am going to put it to you this way: Even the quotation is unacceptable. I want you to withdraw that comment.
Mr C M LOWE: Chair, I don’t believe that the quotation is unacceptable. It appeared in the press, in the media. I simply repeated what had been said in the media. [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: I am going to ask you for the last time, Mr Lowe, to please withdraw the comment.
Mr C M LOWE: Mr Chairman, if I didn’t say it, I can’t withdraw it. I didn’t say the Minister had been bought. [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order, order! Mr Gibson, please take your seat. I am going to look at Hansard, and I will give a ruling when we have the next debate.
Mr Lowe, we will look at the Hansard. We will ascertain what you said, and we will report back to the House.
Mr M RAMGOBIN: Mr Chairperson, on a further point of order: I thought it is procedural that once a chairperson or presiding officer asks a member three times to withdraw, that statement must be withdrawn. [Interjections.] That person must be given his marching orders.
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Thank you, hon member. We will deal with that when we report back to the House. Please continue, hon Minister. [Interjections.]
I want to close this matter. We are reporting back to the House. Can I ask that we suspend this discussion. The Chair will look at Hansard, and we will report back to the House and give a ruling. [Interjections.]
I recognise Mr Gibson and then Mr Turok.
Mr D H M GIBSON: Chairperson, there is an existing point of order, which the hon Mr Pretorius took, and you haven’t considered it or ruled on it. The hon Minister referred to the hon Mr Lowe as a ``twerp’’. That is unparliamentary. You were listening when he said it. I ask you to tell the Minister to withdraw that unparliamentary comment. [Interjections.] The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: I will look at that comment as well, and give a ruling on that.
Prof B TUROK: Chairperson, I think, in this incident, there was a
disrespect of the Chair. The hon Lowe said, If you'd been listening to my
speech, you'd have heard ... '', etc. It seems to me that its disrespectful
of the hon Lowe to say to the ChairIf you’d been listening … ‘’. I
think that’s disrespectful, and I think he should withdraw that.
[Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Hon Turok, I have said that we will look at Hansard, and we will give a ruling out in the House. [Interjections.]
The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Mr Chairperson, if you rule that ``twerp’’ is unparliamentary, I will withdraw it. I said that. If it’s unparliamentary and you order me to withdraw it, I will withdraw.
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Thank you, hon Minister. The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Thank you, Chair.
Let me address more serious matters that were raised by people who seem to have a greater concern for their communities. The hon member Miss Rajbally pointed out quite correctly that she has concerns that in communities themselves, we need to ensure that these public interest matters are dealt with and are of concern. This is the reason why we specifically had a workshop in the NCOP, working with the provincial authorities.
It is quite clear that the total system needs to be in place. As was originally conceived and is still conceived of in this legislation, we are seeking to ensure that what is a massive illegal industry is legalised. We should not be making criminals out of ordinary people.
Therefore, we do need to make sure that a retail licensing system is introduced and that the prescriptions regarding public interests are complied with. We’ve undertaken, as a national department, both through the National Liquor Policy Council and as the department, to work with our colleagues in the provinces to get that system in place as quickly as possible. I think respected community leaders can play a very important role in facilitating this process.
Chairperson and those hon members that are honourable, thank you for your support for this Bill. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
Question put: That the Bill be read a second time.
Division demanded.
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! I would like to remind members that they may only vote from their allocated seats. When requested to do so, members must simply indicate their vote by pressing the appropriate button. If a member inadvertently presses the wrong button, the member may thereafter press the correct button. The last button pressed will be recorded as the member’s vote when the voting session is closed by the Chair.
The House divided:
AYES - 178: Abrahams, T; Abram, S; Arendse, J D; Baloyi, S F; Bapela, O; Benjamin, J; Beukman, F; Bhengu, F; Biyela, B P; Blaas, A; Bloem, D V; Bogopane, H I; Cachalia, I M; Carrim, Y I; Chiba, L; Chikane, M M; Cronin, J P; Daniels, N; Davies, R H; De Lange, J H; Dhlamini, B W; Diale, L N; Dithebe, S L; Dlali, D M; Du Toit, D C; Dudley, C; Durand, J; Dyani, M M Z; Erwin, A; Fankomo, F C; Ferreira, E T; Geldenhuys, B L; George, M E; Gerber, P A; Goosen, A D; Greyling, C H F; Gumede, D M; Hajaig, F; Hanekom, D A; Hendricks, L B; Hlaneki, C J; Hlengwa, M W; Hogan, B A; Jassat, E E; Jeffery, J H; Joemat, R R; Johnson, C B; Jordan, Z P; Kati, J Z; Kgauwe, Q J; Kgwele, L G; Kotwal, Z; Landers, L T; Lekgoro, M K; Lishivha, T E; Louw, S K; Lucas, E J; Luthuli, A N; Lyle, A G; Mabena, D C; Magubane, N E; Mahlangu-Nkabinde, G L; Mahlawe, N; Makasi, X C; Malumise, M M; Mars, I; Martins, B A D; Masala, M M; Mashimbye, J N; Masithela, N H; Masutha, M T; Mathebe, P M; Maunye, M M; Maziya, M A; Mbadi, L M; Mbombo, N D; Mbuyazi, L R; Mdlalose, M M; Meruti, V; Mfundisi, I S; Mkono, D G; Mlangeni, A; Mnandi, P N; Mngomezulu, G P; Mnguni, B A; Modisenyane, L J; Moeketse, K M; Mofokeng, T R; Mogoba, M S; Mohamed, I J; Mohlala, R J B; Mokoena, A D; Molebatsi, M A; Moloi, J; Moloto, K A; Moonsamy, K; Moropa, R M; Morutoa, M R; Morwamoche, K W; Moss, M I; Mothoagae, P K; Mpaka, H M; Mshudulu, S A; Mtsweni, N S; Mudau, N W; Mutsila, I; Mzondeki, M J G; Nair, B; Ncinane, I Z; Ndzanga, R A; Nel, A C; Nene, N M; Newhoudt-Druchen, W S; Ngaleka, E; Ngcengwane, N D; Ngema, M V; Ngiba, B C; Nhleko, N P; Nhlengethwa, D G; Njobe, M A A; Nkabinde, N C; Nqodi, S B; Ntuli, B M; Ntuli, J T; Nwamitwa-Shilubana, T L P; Nxumalo, S N; Nzimande, L P M; Olckers, M E; Olifant, D A A; Omar, A M; Oosthuizen, G C; Phadagi, M G; Phala, M J; Pieterse, R D; Rajbally, S; Ramgobin, M; Ratsoma, M M; Rhoda, R T; Ripinga, S S; Robertsen, M O; Roopnarain, U; Rwexana, S P; Saloojee, E (Cassim); Schippers, J; Schneeman, G D; Schoeman, E A; Seeco, M A; Sekgobela, P S; September, C C; Sibande, M P; Sibiya, M S M; Sigwela, E M; Sikakane, M R; Simmons, S; Sithole, D J; Sithole, P; Skhosana, W M; Solo, B M; Sonjica, B P; Sotyu, M M; Swart, S N; Tarr, M A; Thabethe, E; Tinto, B; Tolo, L J; Tsheole, N M; Tshwete, P; Turok, B; Twala, N M; Van Wyk, A; Van Wyk, J F; Van Wyk, N; Vos, S C; Woods, G G; Xingwana, L M T; Xulu, M; Zondo, R P; Zulu, N E.
NOES - 33: Andrew, K M; Bell, B G; Borman, G M; Camerer, S M; Clelland- Stokes, N J; Da Camara, M L; Ellis, M J; Farrow, S B; Gibson, D H M; Gore, V C; Grobler, G A J; Jankielsohn, R; Kalyan, S; Le Roux, W J; Lee, T D; Lowe, C M; Maluleke, D K; McIntosh, G B D; Moorcroft, E K; Morkel, C M; Nel, A H; Ntuli, R S; Pretorius, I J; Rabie, P J; Schalkwyk, P J; Schmidt, H C; Selfe, J; Semple, J A; Seremane, J; Swart, P S; Theron, J L; Van Deventer, F J; Van Niekerk, A I. Question agreed to.
Bill accordingly read a second time.
MINING TITLES REGISTRATION AMENDMENT BILL
(Consideration of Bill and of Report thereon)
There was no debate.
Bill agreed to.
NATURAL SCIENTIFIC PROFESSIONS BILL
(Consideration of Bill and of Report thereon)
There was no debate.
Bill agreed to.
The House adjourned at 18:14. ____
ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS
MONDAY, 30 JUNE 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159:
(1) Gambling Bill, 2003, submitted by the Minister of Trade and
Industry on 24 June 2003. Referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Trade and Industry and the Select Committee on Economic and
Foreign Affairs.
(2) Insolvency and Business Recovery Bill, 2003, submitted by the
Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development on 27 June
2003. Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and
Constitutional Development and the Select Committee on Security
and Constitutional Affairs.
- Translations of Bills submitted:
(1) The Minister of Finance:
(i) Wysigingswetsontwerp op die Finansiële en Fiskale
Kommissie [W 21 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 76).
This is the official translation into Afrikaans of the Financial
and Fiscal Commission Amendment Bill [B 21 - 2003] (National
Assembly - sec 76).
National Assembly:
- Referrals to committees of tabled papers:
(1) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Communications for consideration and report. The Portfolio
Committee on Communications must report to the House by 7 November
2003:
A letter dated 6 June 2003 from the Minister of Communications,
addressed to the Speaker of the National Assembly, informing her
of the appointment of a new South African Broadcasting Corporation
(SABC) Board of Directors.
(2) The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Finance:
(a) Annual Report of the South African Reserve Bank - Bank
Supervision Department for 2002.
(b) Government Notice No 743 published in Government Gazette
No 25050 dated 31 May 2003: Appointment of members of the
Amnesty Unit, in terms of section 23 of the Exchange Control
Amnesty and Amendment of Taxation Laws Act, 2003 (Act No 12 of
2003).
(3) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Justice and Constitutional Development:
Strategic Framework for the Department of Justice and
Constitutional Development for 2003-2006.
(4) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Defence and to the Joint Standing Committee on Defence:
Letter from the President of the Republic informing Parliament of
the Employment of the South African National Defence Force in the
Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in compliance with the
International Obligations of the Republic of South Africa towards
the United Nations Organisation.
(5) The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Water Affairs and Forestry:
(a) Water Tribunal Manual published in Government Gazette No
24626 dated 28 March 2003: Manual for the purposes of section
14 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (Act No
2 of 2000).
(b) Government Notice No 568 published in Government Gazette
No 24794 dated 2 May 2003: Transformation of the Citrusdal
Irrigation Board, Magisterial District of Clanwilliam, Western
Cape Province, into the Citrusdal Water User Association,
Water Management Area Number 17, Western Cape Province, in
terms of the National Water Act, 1998 (Act No 36 of 1998).
(c) Government Notice No 715 published in Government Gazette
No 24920 dated 6 June 2003: Prohibition on the making of fires
in the open air, the destruction by burning of slash and
clearing or maintenance of fire belts by burning and the
execution of blockburns: Districts of (A) Ermelo, Eerstehoek,
Carolina and Waterval-Boven; (B) Piet Retief and Wakkerstroom,
in terms of the Forest Act, 1984 (Act No 122 of 1984).
(d) Government Notice No 716 published in Government Gazette
No 24920 dated 6 June 2003: Prohibition on the making of fires
in the open air, the destruction by burning of slash and
clearing or maintenance of fire belts by burning and the
execution of blockburns: Districts of Nelspruit, White River,
Pilgrim's Rest, Lydenburg, Belfast, Waterval-Boven, Carolina
and Barberton, in terms of the Forest Act, 1984 (Act No 122 of
1984).
(e) Government Notice No 717 published in Government Gazette
No 24920 dated 6 June 2003: Prohibition on the making of fires
in the open air, the destruction by burning of ground cover,
including slash, the clearing or maintenance of a fire belt by
burning or the execution of blockburns: KwaZulu-Natal, in
terms of the Forest Act, 1984 (Act No 122 of 1984).
(6) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Trade and Industry and to the Portfolio Committee on Foreign
Affairs:
Report of Delegation to 5th Session of African, Carribbean,
Pacific-Europian Union Joint Parliamentary Assembly, Brazzaville,
Republic of Congo, 31 March-3 April 2003.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Speaker and the Chairperson:
Report of the Public Service Commission on The Review of Departments'
Annual Reports as an Accountability Mechanism [RP 47-2003].
- The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development:
(1) A notice to alter the area of jurisdiction for which a High
Court has been established in terms of section 2(2) of the Interim
Rationalisation of Jurisdiction of High Courts Act, 2001 (Act No
41 of 2001).
(2) Report regarding the Alteration of the areas of Jurisdiction for
which High Courts have been established.
(3) The Protocol on Southern African Development Community Tribunal
in terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(4) Agreement amending the Protocol on Southern African Development
Community Tribunal in terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution,
1996.
(5) Proclamation No R49 published in Government Gazette No 25065
dated 13 June 2003: Commencement of sections 4(1), 7 to 23, 30,
31, and 34(2) of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of
Unfair Discrimination Act, 2000 (Act No 4 of 2000).
(6) Government Notice No R764 published in Government Gazette No
25065 dated 13 June 2003: Regulations made in terms of the
Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act,
2000 (Act No 4 of 2000).
- The Minister of Communications:
Report and Group Annual Financial Statements of the South African Post
Office Limited for 2000-2001.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
-
Report of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence on the appointment of the Inspector General for Intelligence Services, dated 25 June 2003:
The Committee, after considering the results of the public interviews for the position of the Inspector General on 25 June 2003, resolved to recommend that Mr Zolile Thando Ngcakani be appointed as Inspector General for Intelligence Services.
In terms of section 7(1)(b) of Act 40 of 1994, as amended, the appointment of the Inspector General shall be approved by the National Assembly by a resolution supported by at least two thirds of its members.
Report to be considered.
THURSDAY, 3 JULY 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS: National Assembly:
- Membership of Committees:
(1) The following changes have been made to the membership of Joint
Committees, viz:
Ethics and Members' Interests:
Appointed: Schmidt, H C.
Discharged: Maluleke, D K.
Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Children, Youth and
Disabled Persons:
Appointed: Moatshe, M S.
Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women:
Appointed: Mutsila, I (Alt).
(2) The following changes have been made to the membership of
Standing Committees, viz:
Private Members' Legislative Proposals and Special Petitions:
Discharged: Coetzee-Kasper, M P.
Public Accounts:
Appointed: Robertsen, M O.
(3) The following changes have been made to the membership of
Portfolio Committees, viz:
Agriculture and Land Affairs:
Appointed: McIntosh, G B D (Alt); Ngcengwane, N D (Alt);
Robertsen, M O (Alt).
Arts, Culture, Science and Technology:
Appointed: Mabuyakhulu, D.
Communications:
Appointed: Clelland-Stokes, N J (Alt).
Education:
Appointed: Steele, M H (Alt).
Environmental Affairs and Tourism:
Appointed: Semple, J A (Alt).
Foreign Affairs:
Appointed: Camerer, S M (Alt).
Health:
Discharged: Van Wyk, A.
Home Affairs:
Appointed: Borman, G M; Grobler, G A J (Alt); Van Deventer, F J;
Van Wyk, A (Alt).
Housing:
Appointed: Steele, M H.
Discharged: Coetzee-Kasper, M P; Southgate, R M.
Justice and Constitutional Development:
Appointed: Mahlawe, N (Alt); Malahlela, M J; Waters, M.
Discharged: Martins, B A D; Nel, A C.
Provincial and Local Government:
Appointed: Doman, W P.
Discharged: Van Deventer, F J.
Public Enterprises:
Appointed: Farrow, S B (Alt); Theron, J L.
Public Service and Administration:
Appointed: Bell, B G (Alt); Steele, M H.
Public Works:
Appointed: Moatshe, M S (Alt).
Safety and Security:
Appointed: Southgate, R M.
Discharged: Meshoe, K R J.
Sport and Recreation:
Appointed: Grobler, G A J; Swart, P S (Alt).
Social Development:
Discharged: Coetzee-Kasper, M P; Waters, M.
Trade and Industry:
Appointed: Bruce, N S (Alt).
Transport:
Appointed: Koornhof, N J J van R.
Discharged: Makanda, W G; Ngcengwane, N D.
Water Affairs and Forestry:
Appointed: Le Roux, J W; Mabuyakhulu, D; McIntosh, G B D.
- Referrals to committees of tabled papers:
(1) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Home Affairs:
Strategic Plan of the Department of Home Affairs for 2003-2006.
(2) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Public Service and Administration:
Report of the Public Service Commission on The Review of
Departments' Annual Reports as an Accountability Mechanism [RP 47-
2003].
(3) The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Justice and Constitutional Development:
(a) A notice to alter the area of jurisdiction for which a
High Court has been established in terms of section 2(2) of
the Interim Rationalisation of Jurisdiction of High Courts
Act, 2001 (Act No 41 of 2001).
(b) Report regarding the Alteration of the areas of
Jurisdiction for which High Courts have been established.
(c) The Protocol on Southern African Development Community
Tribunal, tabled in terms of section 231(3) of the
Constitution, 1996.
(d) Agreement amending the Protocol on Southern African
Development Community Tribunal, tabled in terms of section
231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(e) Government Notice No R764 published in Government Gazette
No 25065 dated 13 June 2003: Regulations made in terms of the
Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination
Act, 2000 (Act No 4 of 2000).
(4) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Communications:
Report and Group Annual Financial Statements of the South African
Post Office Limited for 2000-2001.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Minister of Communications:
Report and Group Annual Financial Statements of the South African Post
Office Limited for 2001-2002.
MONDAY, 7 JULY 2003
TABLINGS:
National Assembly:
- The Speaker: The President of the Republic submitted the following letter dated 20 June 2003 to the Speaker of the National Assembly informing the National Assembly of the employment of the South African National Defence Force:
EMPLOYMENT OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL DEFENCE FORCE IN THE
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO AND UGANDA IN THE FULFILLMENT OF THE
INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA TOWARDS THE
UNITED NATIONS
This serves to inform the National Assembly that on the 20th day of
June Two Thousand and Three, I authorised the employment of the South
African National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel to the North Eastern
part of the Republic of Congo and Uganda for service as part of the
Interim Emergency Multinational Force to contribute to the
stabilisation of the security and humanitarian situation in Bunia. The
employment is in compliance with the United Nations Security Resolution
1484 of 30 May 2003.
This employment was authorised in accordance with the provisions of
Section 82(4)(b)(ii) of the Constitution of the Republic of South
Africa, 1993 (Act No 200 of 1993), [which section continues to be in
force in terms of Item 24(1) of Schedule 6 to the Constitution of the
Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act No 108 of 1996], read with Section
201(2)(c) of the said Constitution of 1996, for service in fulfillment
of the international obligations of the Republic of South Africa
towards the United Nations, in the Republic of Congo and Uganda in
terms of Section 227(1)(b) of the Constitution of 1993, (which section
is also still in force by virtue of the aforementioned Item 24) and
Section 18(1) read together with Section 11 of the Defence Act, 2002
(Act No 42 of 2002).
A total of twenty five (25) will be employed, consisting of the
following:
(a) Aircraft and Groundcrew
(b) Staff Officers
(c) Command and Management (CMI), Medical, Logistics and
Intelligence Officers.
The South African National Defence Force will provide the following
equipment:
2X Oryx Helicopters
The expected cost of the deployment of personnel to the mission for
three months until 1 September 2003, is R22.8 million.
No provision has been made in Defence's allocation to cover this
expenditure. It is also not possible to accommodate the expenditure by
reprioritising current and/or future activities. Defence's allocation
will need to be supplemented to continue with the deployment.
The National Treasury officials have directed that unforeseeable and
unavoidable expenditure must be addressed through the budgetary process
in the adjustments budget.
I will also communicate this report to the Members of the National
Council of Provinces, and wish to request that you bring the contents
of this report to the notice of the National Assembly.
Regards
T M Mbeki
WEDNESDAY, 9 JULY 2003 ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly:
- Membership of Committees:
(1) The following changes have been made to the membership of
Portfolio Committees, viz:
Justice and Constitutional Development:
Appointed: Bakker, D M (Alt); Johnson, C B.
- Membership of Assembly:
(a) The vacancy which occurred owing to Ms N Hlangwana vacating her
seat with effect from 30 May 2003, has been filled with effect
from 4 July 2003 by the nomination of Ms V Meruti.
(b) The vacancy which occurred owing to Mr N Kekana vacating his
seat with effect from 1 June 2003, has been filled with effect
from 4 July 2003 by the nomination of Mr P Sithole.
(c) The vacancy which occurred owing to Ms N W Madikizela-Mandela
vacating her seat with effect from 22 May 2003, has been filled
with effect from 4 July 2003 by the nomination of Ms N Daniels.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly:
- The Speaker:
The President of the Republic submitted the following letter dated 4
July 2003 to the Speaker of the National Assembly informing the
National Assembly of the employment of the South African National
Defence Force:
EMPLOYMENT OF THE SOUTH AFRICA NATIONAL DEFENCE FORCE IN THE REPUBLIC
OF MOZAMBIQUE IN THE FULFILLMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS OF
THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA TOWARDS THE AFRICAN UNION
This serves to inform the National Assembly that on the 20th June 2003,
I authorised the employment of the South African National Defence Force
(SANDF) personnel in order to fulfill the international obligations of
the Republic of South Africa towards the African Union in the Republic
of Mozambique, for the provision of logistical assistance at the Second
African Union Heads of State and Government Summit.
This employment was authorised in accordance with the provisions of
Section 82(4)(b)(ii) read with Section 227(1)(b) and (c) of the
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993 (Act No 200 of
1993), [which section continues to be in force in terms of Item 24(1)
of Schedule 6 to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996
(Act No 108 of 1996], and Section 18(1) read together with Section 11
of the Defence Act, 2002 (Act No 42 of 2002).
A total of seventy (70) personnel has been employed, consisting of the
following:
(a) 10X Command Group Members
(b) 6X SA Army Members
(c) 27X SA Air Force Members
(d) 15X SA Navy Members
(e) 12X SA Military Health Services Members.
The South African National Defence Force will provide the following
equipment:
(a) 1X Oryx Helicopter
(b) 1X BK-117 Helicopter
(c) 2X Recovery Vehicles
(d) 1X Water Bunker (10 000 litres)
(e) 1X Inshore Patrol Vessel (IPV)
(f) 2X Light Ambulances
The total estimated costs for the deployment of personnel to the
mission area from 23 June 2003 to 15 July 2003 is R5,75 million.
The South African support to the Government of Mozambique will be
funded from the African Renaissance fund, as authorised by cabinet.
I will also communicate this report to the Members of the National
Council of Provinces, and wish to request that you bring the contents
of this report to the notice of the National Assembly.
Regards
T M Mbeki
THURSDAY, 24 JULY 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Assent by President in respect of Bills:
(a) Judicial Matters Amendment Bill [B 2B - 2003] - Act No 16 of
2003 (assented to and signed by President on 4 July 2003);
(b) Insurance Amendment Bill [B 52B - 2002] - Act No 17 of 2003
(assented to and signed by President on 16 July 2003); and
(c) Appropriation Bill [B 8 - 2003] - Act No 18 of 2003 (assented to
and signed by President on 16 July 2003).
- Introduction of Bills:
(1) The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development:
(i) Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Amendment
Bill [B 34 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75) [Explanatory
summary of Bill and prior notice of its introduction published
in Government Gazette No 25150 of 30 June 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Justice
and Constitutional Development of the National Assembly, as well
as referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for
classification in terms of Joint Rule 160, on 23 July 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bills may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
- Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159:
(1) Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Amendment Bill,
2003, submitted by the Minister for Justice and Constitutional
Development on 17 June 2003. Referred to the Portfolio Committee
on Justice and Constitutional Development and the Select Committee
on Security and Constitutional Affairs.
(2) Unemployment Insurance Amendment Bill, 2003, submitted by the
Minister of Labour on 21 July 2003. Referred to the Portfolio
Committee on Labour and the Select Committee on Labour and Public
Enterprises.
- Translations of Bills submitted:
(1) The Minister of Trade and Industry:
(i) Nasionale Kleinsakewysigingswetsontwerp [W 20 - 2003]
(National Assembly - sec 75).
This is the official translation into Afrikaans of the National
Small Business Amendment Bill [B 20 - 2003] (National Assembly -
sec 75).
(2) The Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology:
(i) Wetsontwerp op Natuurwetenskaplike Professies [W 56 -
2002] (National Assembly - sec 75).
This is the official translation into Afrikaans of the Natural
Scientific Professions Bill [B 56 - 2002] (National Assembly - sec
75).
National Assembly:
-
Referrals of papers tabled to committees: (1) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on Communications:
Report and Group Annual Financial Statements of the South African Post Office for 2001-2002.
(2) The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Defence and to the Joint Standing Committee on Defence:
(a) Letter from the President of the Republic informing
Parliament of the Employment of the South African National
Defence Force in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda
in the fulfilment of the International Obligations of the
Republic of South Africa towards the United Nations.
(b) Letter from the President of the Republic informing
Parliament of the Employment of the South African National
Defence Force in the Republic of Mozambique in the fulfilment
of the International Obligations of the Republic of South
Africa towards the African Union.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Minister of Finance:
(a) Government Notice No 879 published in Government Gazette No
25092 dated 13 June 2003: Regulations in terms of the Financial
Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002 (Act No 37 of 2002).
(b) Government Notice No R861 published in Government Gazette No
25082 dated 20 June 2003: Determination of amounts in terms of
sections 1 and 5 of the Military Pensions Act, 1967 (Act No 84 of
1967).
(c) Proclamation No 51 published in Government Gazette No 25151
dated 27 June 2003: Fixing of date on which certain sections shall
come into operation in terms of the Financial Intelligence Centre
Act, 2001 (Act No 38 of 2001).
(d) Government Notice No R952 published in Government Gazette No
25148 dated 27 June 2003: Amendment of Air Passenger Tax (APT/2)
in terms of the Customs and Excise Act, 1964 (Act No 91 of 1964).
(e) Government Notice No 958 published in Government Gazette No
25154 dated 30 June 2003: Statement of the National Revenue,
Expenditure and Borrowing as at 31 May 2003 in terms of the Public
Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No 1 of 1999).
TUESDAY, 29 JULY 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
-
Introduction of Bills: (1) The Minister of Labour:
(i) Unemployment Insurance Amendment Bill [B 35 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75) [Bill and prior notice of its introduction published in Government Gazette No 25234 of 22 July 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Labour of the National Assembly, as well as referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of Joint Rule 160, on 29 July 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of the Bills may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) within three parliamentary working days.
(2) The Minister of Education:
(i) Higher Education Amendment Bill [B 36 - 2003] (National
Assembly - sec 75) [Explanatory summary of Bill and prior
notice of its introduction published in Government Gazette No
25226 of 21 July 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Education
of the National Assembly, as well as referral to the Joint Tagging
Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of Joint Rule 160, on
29 July 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bills may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
- Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159:
(1) The Minister of Education on 22 July 2003 submitted the
following Bills:
(i) Education Laws Amendment Bill, 2003.
(ii) Higher Education Laws Amendment Bill, 2003.
Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Education and the Select
Committee on Education and Recreation.
- Translations of Bills submitted:
(1) The Minister of Minerals and Energy:
(i) Wysigingswetsontwerp op Petroleumprodukte [W 25 - 2003]
(National Assembly - sec 75).
This is the official translation into Afrikaans of the Petroleum
Products Amendment Bill [B 25 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec
75).
TABLINGS: National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Speaker and the Chairperson:
General Report of the Auditor-General on Local Government [RP 34-2003].
THURSDAY, 31 JULY 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Introduction of Bills:
(1) The Minister of Home Affairs:
(i) Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Bill [B 37 -
2003] (National Assembly - sec 75) [Explanatory summary of
Bill and prior notice of its introduction published in
Government Gazette No 25236 of 23 July 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Home
Affairs of the National Assembly, as well as referral to the Joint
Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of Joint Rule
160, on 31 July 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bills may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
(2) The Minister of Education:
(i) Education Laws Amendment Bill [B 38 - 2003] (National
Assembly - sec 76) [Explanatory summary of Bill and prior
notice of its introduction published in Government Gazette No
25226 of 21 July 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Education
of the National Assembly, as well as referral to the Joint Tagging
Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of Joint Rule 160, on
1 August 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bills may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
- Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159:
(1) Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Bill, 2003,
submitted by the Minister of Home Affairs on 24 July 2003.
Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs and the Select
Committee on Social Services.
(2) Postal Services Amendment Bill, 2003, submitted by the Minister
of Communications on 24 July 2003. Referred to the Portfolio
Committee on Communications and the Select Committee on Labour and
Public Enterprises.
(3) General Intelligence Law Amendment Bill, 2003, submitted by the
Minister of Intelligence on 25 July 2003.
(4) The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development on 28
July 2003 submitted the following Bills:
(i) Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Third
Amendment Bill, 2003.
(ii) Superior Courts Bill, 2003.
(iii) Judicial Matters Second Amendment Bill, 2003.
(iv) Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Amendment Bill, 2003.
Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional
Development and the Select Committee on Security and
Constitutional Affairs.
TUESDAY, 5 AUGUST 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Assent by President in respect of Bills:
(i) Banks Amendment Bill [B 15B - 2003] - Act No 19 of 2003
(assented to and signed by President on 30 July 2003).
- Introduction of Bills:
(1) The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism:
(i) National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Bill [B
39 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 76) [Bill and prior notice
of its introduction published in Government Gazette No 25052
of 3 June 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on
Environmental Affairs and Tourism of the National Assembly, as
well as referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for
classification in terms of Joint Rule 160, on 5 August 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bills may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
(2) The Minister of Communications:
(i) Postal Services Amendment Bill [B 40 - 2003] (National
Assembly - sec 75) [Explanatory summary of Bill and prior
notice of its introduction published in Government Gazette No
25274 of 28 July 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on
Communications of the National Assembly, as well as referral to
the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of
Joint Rule 160, on 6 August 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bills may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
-
Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159: (1) The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism on 28 July 2003 submitted the following Bills:
(i) National Environmental Management Second Amendment Bill, 2003. (ii) National Environmental Management: Air Quality Bill, 2003. (iii) Environment Conservation Amendment Bill, 2003.
Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs and Tourism and the Select Committee on Land and Environmental Affairs.
(2) Skills Development Amendment Bill, 2003, submitted by the
Minister of Labour on 29 July 2003. Referred to the Portfolio
Committee on Labour and the Select Committee on Labour and Public
Enterprises.
(3) The Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs on 30 July 2003
submitted the following Bills:
(i) Agricultural Produce Agents Amendment Bill, 2003.
(ii) Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill, 2003.
Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land
Affairs and the Select Committee on Land and Environmental
Affairs.
National Assembly:
- Membership of Assembly:
The membership of Mr M F Cassim has been restored with effect from 17
June 2003.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Minister of Trade and Industry:
Report and Financial Statements of the Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-
General on the Financial Statements and Group Financial Statements of
the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research for 2002-2003 [RP 70-
2003].
- The Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs:
Report and Financial Statements of the Perishable Products Export
Control Board for 2002, including the Report of the Independent
Auditors for 2002.
National Assembly:
- The Speaker:
Letter from the President of the Republic dated 16 July 2003, addressed
to the Speaker on the Report on the Investigation of the Public
Protector on Minister Lekota:
Madam Speaker
REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION OF THE PUBLIC PROTECTOR ON MINISTER
LEKOTA
This serves to inform the National Assembly that on the 11th July
2003 I received a report from the Public Protector, regarding a
complaint lodged against the Minister of Defence, Minister M G P
Lekota. A copy of the report is attached herewith.
The complaint was lodged in terms of section 4(1)(a) by Mr D
Gibson MP, a member of the National Assembly, and concerned an
alleged breach of paragraphs 3.6 and 6 of the Executive Ethics
Code.
In summary, the findings of the Public Protector are:
1. That there has been no conflict of interests between the
interests that Minister Lekota had in the business listed in
the report and his functions as a member of the Executive.
2. That there has been a failure on the part of the Minister to
declare some financial interest in the entities listed in the
report, but that imposing a penalty on the Minister for such
failure would amount to double punishment, the Minister having
been penalised by the National Assembly already.
I accept the findings of the Public Protector.
Having considered the Public Protector's findings, the report of
the Joint Committee on Members' Interest as well as the fact that
the National Assembly has penalised the Minister for the non-
disclosure, the Minister was reprimanded for failure to comply
fully with paragraph 6 of the Executive Ethics Code.
Sincerely,
T M MBEKI
CREDA INSER REPORT
THURSDAY, 7 AUGUST 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Introduction of Bills:
(1) The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development:
(i) Judicial Matters Second Amendment Bill [B 41 - 2003]
(National Assembly - sec 75) [Explanatory summary of Bill and
prior notice of its introduction published in Government
Gazette No 25282 of 30 July 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Justice
and Constitutional Development of the National Assembly, as well
as referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for
classification in terms of Joint Rule 160, on 8 August 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bills may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
(2) The Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs:
(i) Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill [B 42 - 2003]
(National Assembly - sec 75) [Bill and prior notice of its
introduction published in Government Gazette No 25217 of 25
July 2003.]
(ii) Sectional Titles Amendment Bill [B 43 - 2003] (National
Assembly - sec 75) [Bill and prior notice of its
introduction published in Government Gazette No 25217 of 25
July 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on
Agriculture and Land Affairs of the National Assembly, as well as
referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification
in terms of Joint Rule 160, on 8 August 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bills may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
- Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159:
(1) Sectional Titles Amendment Bill, 2003, submitted by the Minister
for Agriculture and Land Affairs on 29 July 2003. Referred to the
Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs and the Select
Committee on Land and Environmental Affairs.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
-
The Minister of Finance: Government Notice No 950 published in Government Gazette No 25146 dated 1 July 2003: Determination of interest rate for purposes of Paragraph (a) of the definition of “Official Rate of Interest” in Paragraph 1 of the Seventh Schedule to the Income Tax Act, 1962.
-
The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism:
Annual Review of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
for 2002-2003.
- The Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry:
(1) Government Notice No R.953 published in Government Gazette No
25137 dated 4 July 2003: Correction Notice - Fire Protection
Associations in terms of Chapter 2 of the National Veld and Forest
Fire Act, 1998.
(2) Government Notice No 268 published in Government Gazette No
24865 dated 10 July 2003: Release of land from the Ngome State
Forest Reserve in terms of section 50(3) of the National Forests
Act, 1998 (Act No 84 of 1998).
(3) Government Notice No 961 published in Government Gazette No
25164 dated 11 July 2003: Prohibition on the making of fires in
the open air, the destruction by burning of slash and clearing or
maintenance of fire belts by burning and the execution of block-
burns: Mopane District Municipality (formerly Letaba and
Pietersburg Districts), made in terms of section 25(1), (2) and
(3) of the Forest Act, 1984 (Act No 122 of 1984).
(4) Government Notice No 962 published in Government Gazette No
25164 dated 11 July 2003: Prohibition on the making of fires in
the open air, the destruction by burning of slash and clearing or
maintenance of fire belts by burning and the execution of block-
burns: Vhembe District Municipality (formerly Soutpansberg Areas),
made in terms of section 25(1), (2) and (3) of the Forest Act,
1984 (Act No 122 of 1984).
(5) Government Notice No 1008 published in Government Gazette No
25189 dated 18 July 2003: Restrictions on the use of water for
agricultural purposes in the Inkomati Water Management Area, made
in terms of section 63 read together with section 72 of the
National Water Act, 1998 (Act No 36 of 1998).
(6) Government Notice No 1009 published in Government Gazette No
25189 dated 18 July 2003: Release of portion of State Forest which
is no longer required for forestry, made in terms of section 50(3)
of the National Forests Act, 1998 (Act No 84 of 1998).
(7) Government Notice No 1025 published in Government Gazette No
25215 dated 18 July 2003: Water Research Fund - Rates and Charges,
made in terms of section 11 of the Water Research Act, 1971 (Act
No 34 of 1971).
(8) Government Notice No 1878 published in Government Gazette No
25189 dated 18 July 2003: Publication of Draft Forestry Amendment
Bill, 2003 for public comment.
TUESDAY, 12 AUGUST 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Introduction of Bills:
(1) The Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs:
(i) Spatial Data Infrastructure Bill [B 44 - 2003] (National
Assembly - sec 75) [Bill and prior notice of its introduction
published in Government Gazette No 25217 of 25 July 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on
Agriculture and Land Affairs of the National Assembly, as well as
referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification
in terms of Joint Rule 160, on 11 August 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bills may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
(2) The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism:
(i) Environment Conservation Amendment Bill [B 45 - 2003]
(National Assembly - sec 76) [Bill and prior notice of its
introduction published in Government Gazette No 25289 of 1
August 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on
Environmental Affairs and Tourism of the National Assembly, as
well as referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for
classification in terms of Joint Rule 160, on 12 August 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bills may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
(3) The Minister of Labour:
(i) Skills Development Amendment Bill [B 46 - 2003] (National
Assembly - sec 75) [Explanatory summary of Bill and prior
notice of its introduction published in Government Gazette No
25257 of 25 July 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Labour of
the National Assembly, as well as referral to the Joint Tagging
Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of Joint Rule 160, on
13 August 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bills may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
- Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159:
(1) Spatial Data Infrastructure Bill, 2003, submitted by the
Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs on 1 August 2003.
Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land
Affairs and the Select Committee on Land and Environmental
Affairs.
National Assembly:
- The President has appointed the following persons as members of the National Youth Commission with effect from 1 July 2003 for a period of three years:
(1) Ishmael Ntsokolo Jabu Mbalula (Chairperson)
(2) Daniel Johannes van Vuuren
(3) Nketu Petronus Matima
(4) Petronella Linders (Deputy Chairperson)
(5) Vuyiswa Gladys Tulelo-Rathebe
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development:
(a) United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
(the Convention), tabled in terms of section 231(2) of the
Constitution, 1996
(b) Explanatory Memorandum to the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime (the Convention).
(c) Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons,
especially Women and Children, supplementing the Convention,
tabled in terms of section 231(2) of the Constitution, 1996.
(d) Explanatory Memorandum to the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and
Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children,
supplementing the Convention.
(e) Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air,
supplementing the Convention, tabled in terms of section 231(2) of
the Constitution, 1996.
(f) Explanatory Memoramdum to the Protocol against the Smuggling of
Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the Convention.
(g) Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in
Firearms, their Parts and Components and Ammunition, supplementing
the Convention, tabled in terms of section 231(2) of the
Constitution, 1996.
(h) Explanatory Memorandum to the Protocol against the Illicit
Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, their Parts and
Components and Ammunition, supplementing the Convention.
THURSDAY, 14 AUGUST 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly:
-
Membership of Committees: (1) The following changes have been made to the membership of Portfolio Committees, viz:
Arts, Culture, Science and Technology:
Appointed: Mdlalose, M M. Discharged: Mbuyazi, L R.
Education:
Appointed: Mdlalose, M M (Alt). Discharged: Ngiba, B C.
Public Enterprises:
Appointed: Mdlalose, M M (Alt).
Public Service and Administration:
Appointed: Mdlalose, M M (Alt). Discharged: Mbuyazi, L R.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development:
(a) Proclamation No R53 published in Government Gazette No 25206
dated 11 July 2003: Commencement of the Constitution of the
Republic of South Africa Second Amendment Act, 2003 (Act No 3 of
2003).
(b) Proclamation No R54 published in Government Gazette No 25206
dated 11 July 2003: Commencement of sections 7 and 8 of the
Judicial Matters Second Amendment Act, 1998 (Act No 112 of 1998).
(c) Proclamation No R56 published in Government Gazette No 25214
dated 18 July 2003: Special Investigating Units and Special
Tribunals Act, 1996 (Act No 74 of 1996): Amendment of
proclamation.
(d) Proclamation No R58 published in Government Gazette No 25220
dated 25 July 2003: Special Investigating Units and Special
Tribunals Act, 1996 (Act No 74 of 1996): Referral of Matters to
existing Special Investigating Unit and Special Tribunal.
(e) Proclamation No R59 published in Government Gazette No 25220
dated 25 July 2003: Special Investigating Units and Special
Tribunals Act, 1996 (Act No 74 of 1996): Amendment of
proclamation.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
National Assembly:
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Defence on the Armaments Corporation of South Africa, Limited Bill [B 18 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75), dated 5 August 2003: The Portfolio Committee on Defence, having considered the subject of the Armaments Corporation of South Africa, Limited Bill [B 18 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 75 Bill, reports the Bill with amendments [B 18A - 2003].
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs and Tourism on Lease of Sea Space, dated 5 August 2003:
The Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs and Tourism, having considered the request for approval by the National Assembly, in terms of section 6 of the Sea-shore Act, 1935 (Act No. 21 of 1935), of the lease of sea space to the Maribus Industries (Pty) Ltd Seaweed (Gracilaria) Cultivation Project, referred to it, recommends that the request be approved.
Request to be considered.
FRIDAY, 15 AUGUST 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
-
Introduction of Bills: (1) The Minister for Intelligence:
(i) General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill [B 47 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75) [Explanatory summary of Bill and prior notice of its introduction published in Government Gazette No 25253 of 25 July 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of Joint Rule 160, on 19 August 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of the Bills may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) within three parliamentary working days.
-
Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159:
(1) South African Social Security Agency Bill, 2003, submitted by
the Minister of Social Development on 7 August 2003. Referred to
the Portfolio Committee on Social Development and the Select
Committee on Social Services.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Minister of Labour:
Report and Financial Statements of the National Productivity Institute
2002-2003, including the Report of the Independent Auditors for 2002-
2003.
National Assembly:
- The Speaker: The following letter dated 19 June 2003 was received by the Speaker of the National Assembly from the Minister for the Public Service and Administration in connection with an extention for submission of Strategic Plan: SAMDI:
Dear Madam Speaker,
EXTENTION FOR SUBMISSION OF STRATEGIC PLAN: SAMDI
The South African Management Development Institute (SAMDI) recently
experienced a number of difficulties. Amongst the challenges it had to
face, were the following:
1. The absence of a permanent Director-General in office for more
than five months;
2. Ill-health experienced by the Deputy Director-General; and
3. The long vacancy of the Chief Financial Officer's position.
Taking cognisance of these challenges, it was not possible to finalise
the strategic plan and submit it seven days prior to the Budget Vote,
scheduled for 11 June 2003, as required by the Treasury and Public
Service Regulations.
I have appointed a new Director-General with effect from 22 April 2003,
and I instructed him to carefully assess the organisation and then to
reposition it. My view is that a dramatic repositioning is required to
ensure the long-term sustainability of the organisation. Clearly this
will require a thorough strategic planning process.
The new DG, Mr P B Soobrayan, approached National Treasury and
requested a deviation from Treasury Regulation 5.2.1, which states that
strategic plans must be tabled in Parliament at least seven days prior
to the discussion of the department's budget vote. (Copy of the letter
attached) National Treasury granted SAMDI extension of six months for
the submission of its strategic plan, subject to the Speaker agreeing
on an alternative date for the tabling of the strategic plan, as well
as any other conditions that she may wish to attach to this approval.
(Copy of the response attached).
It is subsequently proposed that the new deadline for the tabling of
SAMDI's strategic plan be set at 30 November 2003. Should you wish to
attach any other conditions to the approval granted by National
Treasury, I will appreciate it if you can inform me accordingly.
Your response in this regard is awaited.
Yours sincerely,
G J FRASER-MOLEKETI
MINISTER
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
National Assembly:
CREDA INSERT REPORT
MONDAY, 18 AUGUST 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159:
(1) The Minister of Health on 14 August 2003 submitted the following
Bills:
(i) Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill, 2003.
(ii) Traditional Health Practitioners Bill, 2003.
(iii) Dental Technicians Amendment Bill, 2003.
Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Health and the Select
Committee on Social Services.
National Assembly:
- Membership of Assembly:
A vacancy has occurred in the National Assembly owing to the death of
the following member on 13 August 2003:
Shope, N R.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly: Papers:
- The Speaker:
Request for an adjustment to conditions of service of the Public
Protector.
TUESDAY, 19 AUGUST 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Introduction of Bills:
(1) The Minister of Trade and Industry:
(i) National Gambling Bill [B 48 - 2003] (National Assembly -
sec 76) [Explanatory summary of Bill and prior notice of its
introduction published in Government Gazette No 25287 of 31
July 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and
Industry of the National Assembly, as well as referral to the
Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of Joint
Rule 160, on 20 August 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bill may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Speaker and the Chairperson:
Report of the National Prosecuting Authority on Plea and Sentence
Agreements as at 30 April 2003.
THURSDAY, 21 AUGUST 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Introduction of Bills:
(1) The Minister for Provincial and Local Government:
(i) Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Bill [B 49 -
2003] (National Assembly - sec 75) [Explanatory summary of
Bill and prior notice of its introduction published in
Government Gazette No 25344 of 11 August 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on
Provincial and Local Government of the National Assembly, as well
as referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for
classification in terms of Joint Rule 160, on 22 August 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bill may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
- Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159:
(1) Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Bill, 2003,
submitted by the Minister for Provincial and Local Government on 8
August 2003. Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Provincial and
Local Government and the Select Committee on Local Government and
Administration.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Minister of Finance:
(a) Government Notice No R1011 published in Government Gazette No
25192 dated 18 July 2003: Exchange Control Regulations:
Cancellation and appointment of an authorised dealer in foreign
exchange: ING Bank N.V. South Africa Branch, in terms of the
Currency and Exchanges Act, 1933 (Act No 9 of 1933).
(b) Government Notice No 60 published in Government Gazette No 25217
dated 25 July 2003: Regulations for Accounting Standards Board in
terms of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No 1 of
1999).
- The Minister of Trade and Industry:
Community Public Partnership Programme: Annual Review for 2002-2003.
- The Minister of Minerals and Energy:
(a) Agreement between the Government of the Republic of South Africa
and the Government of the Republic of Namibia concerning Natural
Gas Trade, tabled in terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution,
1996.
(b) Explanatory Memorandum to the Agreement between the Government
of the Republic of South Africa and the Government of the Republic
of Namibia concerning Natural Gas Trade.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
National Assembly:
CREDA INSERT REPORT
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Water Affairs and Forestry on the Southern African Development Community Protocol on Forestry, dated 20 August 2003:
The Portfolio Committee on Water Affairs and Forestry, having considered the request for approval by Parliament of the Southern African Development Community Protocol on Forestry, referred to it, recommends that the House, in terms of section 231(2) of the Constitution, approve the said Protocol.
Request to be considered.
FRIDAY, 22 AUGUST 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Classification of Bills by Joint Tagging Mechanism:
(1) The Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) on 21 August 2003 in terms of
Joint Rule 160(3), classified the following Bills as section 75
Bills:
(i) Unemployment Insurance Amendment Bill [B 35 - 2003]
(National Assembly - sec 75).
(ii) Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Bill [B 37 -
2003] (National Assembly - sec 75).
(iii) Postal Services Amendment Bill [B 40 - 2003] (National
Assembly - sec 75).
(iv) Judicial Matters Second Amendment Bill [B 41 - 2003]
(National Assembly - sec 75).
(v) Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill [B 42 - 2003]
(National Assembly - sec 75).
(vi) Sectional Titles Amendment Bill [B 43 - 2003] (National
Assembly - sec 75).
(vii) Spatial Data Infrastructure Bill [B 44 - 2003] (National
Assembly - sec 75).
(2) The Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) on 21 August 2003 in terms of
Joint Rule 160(4), classified the following Bills as section 76
Bills:
(i) National Health Bill [B 32 - 2003] (National Assembly -
sec 76).
(ii) Education Laws Amendment Bill [B 38 - 2003] (National
Assembly - sec 76).
(iii) National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Bill [B
39 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 76).
(iv) Environment Conservation Amendment Bill [B 45 - 2003]
(National Assembly - sec 76).
- Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159:
(1) South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport Amendment Bill,
2003, submitted by the Minister of Sport and Recreation on 21
August 2003. Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Sport and
Recreation and the Select Committee on Education and Recreation.
National Assembly:
- The Speaker:
(1) DECISION BY THE SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TO ESTABLISH AN
AD HOC COMMITTEE ON GENERAL INTELLIGENCE LAWS AMENDMENT BILL [B47-
2003] IN TERMS OF RULE 214
a) The Speaker of the National Assembly, after consultation with
whips and party representatives, decided on 21 August 2003, in
terms of Rule 214, to establish an Ad Hoc Committee on General
Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill to consider and report to the
National Assembly on the General Intelligence Law Amendment
Bill, No 47 of 2003, tabled and introduced on 15 August 2003.
1) The Committee to consist of 19 members of the National
Assembly, as follows: African National Congress: 11;
Democratic Alliance: 2; Inkatha Freedom Party: 1; New
National Party: 1; and 4 members, plus alternates, from
the other parties.
2) The Committee to confer with the Joint Standing Committee
on Intelligence and the appropriate committee of the
National Council of Provinces.
3) The Committee to submit its report on the bill by not
later than 15 September 2003.
4) The Committee may exercise those powers in Rule 138 that
may assist it in carrying out its task.
MONDAY, 25 AUGUST 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Classification of Bills by Joint Tagging Mechanism:
(1) The Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) on 22 August 2003 in terms of
Joint Rule 160(3), classified the following Bill as a section 75
Bill:
(i) Higher Education Amendment Bill [B 36 - 2003] (National
Assembly - sec 75).
(2) The Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) on 22 August 2003 in terms of
Joint Rule 160(4), classified the following Bill as a section 76
Bill:
(i) National Gambling Bill [B 48 - 2003] (National Assembly -
sec 76).
- Introduction of Bills:
(1) The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development:
(i) Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Amendment Bill [B 50 -
2003] (National Assembly - sec 75) [Explanatory summary of
Bill and prior notice of its introduction published in
Government Gazette No 25282 of 30 July 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Justice
and Constitutional Development of the National Assembly, as well
as referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for
classification in terms of Joint Rule 160, on 26 August 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bill may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
(2) The Minister of Social Development:
(i) South African Social Security Agency Bill [B 51 - 2003]
(National Assembly - sec 76) [Explanatory summary of Bill and
prior notice of its introduction published in Government
Gazette No 25256 of 25 July 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Social
Development of the National Assembly, as well as referral to the
Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of Joint
Rule 160, on 26 August 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bill may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
National Assembly:
- Membership of Committees:
(1) The following members have been appointed to serve on the
Committee mentioned, viz:
Ad Hoc Committee on Auditing Function
African National Congress:
Baloyi, M R
Daniels, N
Gumede, D M
Hogan, B A (Alt)
Jordan, Z P
Mabe, L L
Maloney, L
Mothoagae, P K
Mthembu, B
Nair, B (Alt)
Ndou, R S
Nene, N M (Alt)
Smith, V G
Tarr, M A
Democratic Alliance:
Bell, B G
Steele, M H
New National Party:
Beukman, F
Inkatha Freedom Party:
Woods, G G
African Christian Democratic Party:
Southgate, R M
Independent African Movement:
Millin, T E (Alt)
Alliance for Democracy and Prosperity:
Ramodike, M N (Alt)
United Christian Democratic Party:
Ditshetelo, P H K
United Democratic Movement:
Madikiza, G T (Alt)
Minority Front:
Rajbally, S
National Action:
Aucamp, C (Alt)
Federal Alliance:
Blanché, J P I
- Referrals to committees of tabled papers:
The following papers have been tabled and are now referred to the
relevant committees as mentioned below:
(1) The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Finance:
(a) Government Notice No 879 published in Government Gazette
No 25092 dated 13 June 2003: Regulations in terms of the
Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002 (Act No
37 of 2002).
(b) Government Notice No R861 published in Government Gazette
No 25082 dated 20 June 2003: Determination of amounts in terms
of sections 1 and 5 of the Military Pensions Act, 1967 (Act No
84 of 1967).
(c) Proclamation No 51 published in Government Gazette No
25151 dated 27 June 2003: Fixing of date on which certain
sections shall come into operation in terms of the Financial
Intelligence Centre Act, 2001 (Act No 38 of 2001).
(d) Government Notice No R952 published in Government Gazette
No 25148 dated 27 June 2003: Amendment of Air Passenger Tax
(APT/2) in terms of the Customs and Excise Act, 1964 (Act No
91 of 1964).
(e) Government Notice No 958 published in Government Gazette
No 25154 dated 30 June 2003: Statement of the National
Revenue, Expenditure and Borrowing as at 31 May 2003 in terms
of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No 1 of 1999).
(f) Government Notice No 950 published in Government Gazette
No 25146 dated 1 July 2003: Determination of interest rate for
purposes of Paragraph (a) of the definition of "Official Rate
of Interest" in Paragraph 1 of the Seventh Schedule to the
Income Tax Act, 1962.
(2) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Provincial and Local Government and to the Standing Committee on
Public Accounts for consideration and report:
General Report of the Auditor-General on Local Government [RP 34-
2003].
(3) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Trade and Industry. The Report of the Auditor-General is referred
to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts for consideration and
report:
Report and Financial Statements of the Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research for 2002-2003, including the Report of the
Auditor-General on the Financial Statements and Group Financial
Statements of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
for 2002-2003 [RP 70-2003].
(4) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Agriculture and Land Affairs:
Report and Financial Statements of the Perishable Products Export
Control Board for 2002, including the Report of the Independent
Auditors for 2002.
(5) The following paper is referred to the Joint Committee on Ethics
and Members' Interests for consideration:
Letter from the President of the Republic dated 16 July 2003,
addressed to the Speaker on the Report on the Investigation of the
Public Protector on Minister Lekota.
(6) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Environmental Affairs and Tourism:
Annual Review of the Department of Environmental Affairs and
Tourism for 2002-2003.
(7) The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Water Affairs and Forestry:
(a) Government Notice No R.953 published in Government Gazette
No 25137 dated 4 July 2003: Correction Notice - Fire
Protection Associations in terms of Chapter 2 of the National
Veld and Forest Fire Act, 1998.
(b) Government Notice No 268 published in Government Gazette
No 24865 dated 10 July 2003: Release of land from the Ngome
State Forest Reserve in terms of section 50(3) of the National
Forests Act, 1998 (Act No 84 of 1998).
(c) Government Notice No 961 published in Government Gazette
No 25164 dated 11 July 2003: Prohibition on the making of
fires in the open air, the destruction by burning of slash and
clearing or maintenance of fire belts by burning and the
execution of block-burns: Mopane District Municipality
(formerly Letaba and Pietersburg Districts), made in terms of
section 25(1), (2) and (3) of the Forest Act, 1984 (Act No 122
of 1984).
(d) Government Notice No 962 published in Government Gazette
No 25164 dated 11 July 2003: Prohibition on the making of
fires in the open air, the destruction by burning of slash and
clearing or maintenance of fire belts by burning and the
execution of block-burns: Vhembe District Municipality
(formerly Soutspanberg Areas), made in terms of section 25(1),
(2) and (3) of the Forest Act, 1984 (Act No 122 of 1984).
(e) Government Notice No 1008 published in Government Gazette
No 25189 dated 18 July 2003: Restrictions on the use of water
for agricultural purposes in the Inkomati Water Management
Area, made in terms of section 63 read together with section
72 of the National Water Act, 1998 (Act No 36 of 1998).
(f) Government Notice No 1009 published in Government Gazette
No 25189 dated 18 July 2003: Release of portion of State
Forest which is no longer required for forestry, made in terms
of section 50(3) of the National Forests Act, 1998 (Act No 84
of 1998).
(g) Government Notice No 1025 published in Government Gazette
No 25215 dated 18 July 2003: Water Research Fund - Rates and
Charges, made in terms of section 11 of the Water Research
Act, 1971 (Act No 34 of 1971).
(h) Government Notice No 1878 published in Government Gazette
No 25189 dated 18 July 2003: Publication of Draft Forestry
Amendment Bill, 2003 for public comment.
(8) The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Justice and Constitutional Development for consideration and
report:
(a) United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime (the Convention), tabled in terms of section 231(2) of
the Constitution, 1996.
(b) Explanatory Memorandum to the United Nations Convention
against Transnational Organized Crime (the Convention).
(c) Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the
Convention, tabled in terms of section 231(2) of the
Constitution, 1996.
(d) Explanatory Memorandum to the Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women
and Children, supplementing the Convention.
(e) Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea
and Air, supplementing the Convention, tabled in terms of
section 231(2) of the Constitution, 1996.
(f) Explanatory Memoramdum to the Protocol against the
Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the
Convention.
(g) Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and
Trafficking in Firearms, their Parts and Components and
Ammunition, supplementing the Convention, tabled in terms of
section 231(2) of the Constitution, 1996.
(h) Explanatory Memorandum to the Protocol against the Illicit
Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, their Parts and
Components and Ammunition, supplementing the Convention.
(i) Request for an adjustment to conditions of service of the
Public Protector.
(9) The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Justice and Constitutional Development:
(a) Proclamation No R53 published in Government Gazette No
25206 dated 11 July 2003: Commencement of the Constitution of
the Republic of South Africa Second Amendment Act, 2003 (Act
No 3 of 2003).
(b) Proclamation No R54 published in Government Gazette No
25206 dated 11 July 2003: Commencement of sections 7 and 8 of
the Judicial Matters Second Amendment Act, 1998 (Act No 112 of
1998).
(c) Proclamation No R56 published in Government Gazette No
25214 dated 18 July 2003: Special Investigating Units and
Special Tribunals Act, 1996 (Act No 74 of 1996): Amendment of
Proclamation.
(d) Proclamation No R58 published in Government Gazette No
25220 dated 25 July 2003: Special Investigating Units and
Special Tribunals Act, 1996 (Act No 74 of 1996): Referral of
Matters to existing Special Investigating Unit and Special
Tribunal.
(e) Proclamation No R59 published in Government Gazette No
25220 dated 25 July 2003: Special Investigating Units and
Special Tribunals Act, 1996 (Act No 74 of 1996): Amendment of
Proclamation.
(f) Report of the National Prosecuting Authority on Plea and
Sentence Agreements as at 30 April 2003.
(10) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Labour. The Report of the Independent Auditors is referred to the
Standing Committee on Public Accounts for consideration and
report:
Report and Financial Statements of the National Productivity
Institute 2002-2003, including the Report of the Independent
Auditors for 2002-2003.
(11) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Public Service and Administration and to the Standing Committee on
Public Accounts for consideration and report:
A letter dated 19 June 2003 was received by the Speaker of the
National Assembly from the Minister for the Public Service and
Administration in connection with an extention for submission of
Strategic Plan: SAMDI.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Speaker and the Chairperson:
(a) Special Report No 23 of the Public Protector: Investigation of a
complaint regarding the alleged failure of Mr M P Lekota, Minister
of Defence, to comply with certain provisions of the Executive
Members' Ethics Act, 1998 and the Executive Code.
- The Acting Minister of Transport:
(a) Report and Financial Statements of the South African National
Roads Agency Limited for 2001-2002, including the Report of the
Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2001-2002 [RP 31-
2003].
(b) South African National Roads Agency - Budget Schedules for 2003-
2004.
(c) Report and Financial Statements of the Road Accident Fund for
2001-2002, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the
Financial Statements for 2001-2002 [RP 58-2003].
TUESDAY, 26 AUGUST 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly:
- Messages from National Council of Provinces to National Assembly in respect of Bills passed by Council and transmitted to Assembly:
(1) Message from National Council of Provinces to National Assembly:
Bills, subject to proposed amendments, passed by Council on 26
August 2003 and transmitted for consideration of Council's
proposed amendments:
(i) Natural Scientific Professions Bill [B 56B - 2002]
(National Assembly - sec 75) (for proposed amendments, see
Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports, 7 August
2003, p 793).
The Bill has been referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Arts, Culture, Science and Technology of the National
Assembly for a report on the amendments proposed by the
Council.
(ii) Mining Titles Registration Amendment Bill [B 24B - 2003]
(National Assembly - sec 75) (for proposed amendments, see
Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports, 14 August
2003, p 798).
The Bill has been referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Minerals and Energy of the National Assembly for a report on
the amendments proposed by the Council.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Minister of Defence:
Report and Financial Statements of the Armaments Corporation of South
Africa (ARMSCOR) for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Independent
Auditors for 2002-2003.
- The Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology:
(a) Report and Financial Statements of the William Humphreys Art
Gallery for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General
on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003.
(b) Report and Financial Statements of The Playhouse Company for
2002-2003, including the Report of the Independent Auditors for
2002-2003.
- The Minister of Trade and Industry:
Report and Financial Statements of the South African National
Accreditation System for 2002-2003, including the Report of the
Independent Auditors for 2002-2003.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
National Assembly:
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Minerals and Energy on the Petroleum Pipelines Bill [B 22 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75), dated 12 August 2003:
The Portfolio Committee on Minerals and Energy, having considered the subject of the Petroleum Pipelines Bill [B 22 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 75 Bill, reports the Bill with amendments [B 22A - 2003].
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry on the Broad- Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill [B 27 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75), dated 20 August 2003:
The Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, having considered the subject of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Bill [B 27 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 75 Bill, reports the Bill with amendments [B 27A - 2003]. WEDNESDAY, 27 AUGUST 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly:
- The Speaker:
The following paper has been tabled and is now referred to the relevant
committee as mentioned below:
(1) The referral of Chapter 13 of the South African Human Rights
Commission's Fourth Economic and Social Rights Report was
announced in the Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports on
9 June 2003. The referral of Chapter 13 to the Portfolio Committee
on Finance is withdrawn and is now referred to the Joint Budget
Committee for consideration and report:
Chapter 13 - "Public Finance" of the South African Human Rights
Commission's Fourth Economic and Social Rights Report.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Acting Minister of Transport:
Report and Financial Statements of the Regulating Committee of the
Airports Company of South Africa and the Air Traffic and Navigation
Services Company Ltd for 2002-2003.
- The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism:
Report and Financial Statements of the National Botanical Institute for
2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial
Statements for 2002-2003.
- The Minister of Labour:
(a) Report and Financial Statements of the Commission for
Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) for 2002-2003,
including the Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial
Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 49-2003].
(b) Report and Financial Statements of the Diplomacy, Intelligence,
Defence and Trade Education and Training Authority (DIDTETA) for
2002-2003, including the Report of the Independent Auditors for
2002-2003 [RP 94-2003].
National Assembly:
- The Speaker:
The President of the Republic submitted the following letter dated 12
August 2003 to the Speaker of the National Assembly informing the
National Assembly of the employment of the South African National
Defence Force:
EMPLOYMENT OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL DEFENCE FORCE IN ETHIOPIA AND
ERITREA IN FULFILLMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS OF THE REPUBLIC
OF SOUTH AFRICA TOWARDS THE UNITED NATIONS
This serves to inform the National Assembly that on the 12th day of
August Two Thousand and Three, I authorised the employment of the South
African National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel to Ethiopia and
Eritrea as part of the United Nations Observer Peace Mission in
Ethiopia and Eritrea.
This employment was authorised in accordance with the provisions of
Section 82(4)(b)(ii) of the Constitution of the Republic of South
Africa, 1993 (Act No 200 of 1993), [which Sections continue to be in
force in terms of Item 24(1) of Schedule 6 to the Constitution of the
Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act No 108 of 1996)], read with Section
201(2)(c) of the said Constitution of 1996, for service as part of the
United Nations Peace Keeping Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, in
fulfillment of the international obligations of the Republic of South
Africa towards the United Nations, in terms of Section 227(1)(b) and
(c) of the Constitution of 1993, (which section is also still in force
by virtue of the aforementioned Item 24) and Section 18(1) read
together with Section 11 of the Defence Act, 2002 (Act No 42 of 2002).
A total of three personnel will be employed additional to members that
were employed pursuant to authorization given on 5 December 2000.
The expected costs for the deployment of personnel to the mission for
three months until 31 March 2004, R82 500.
The current Defence allocation has been reprioritized to cover this
expenditure.
I will also communicate this report to the Members of the National
Council of Provinces, and wish to request that you bring the contents
of this report to the notice of the National Assembly.
Regards
T M MBEKI
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
National Assembly:
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Minerals and Energy on the Mining Titles Registration Amendment Bill [B 24B - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75), dated 27 August 2003:
The Portfolio Committee on Minerals and Energy, having considered the Mining Titles Registration Amendment Bill [B 24B - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75) and proposed amendments of the National Council of Provinces (Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports, 14 August 2003, p 798), referred to the Committee, reports the Bill with amendments [B 24C - 2003].
Report to be considered.
THURSDAY, 28 AUGUST 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159:
(1) Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Bill, 2003,
submitted by the Minister for Provincial and Local Government on
27 August 2003. Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Provincial
and Local Government and the Select Committee on Local Government
and Administration.
National Assembly:
- Messages from National Council of Provinces to National Assembly in respect of Bills passed by Council and transmitted to Assembly:
(1) Message from National Council of Provinces to National Assembly:
(i) National Environmental Management Amendment Bill [B 29 -
2003] (National Council of Provinces - sec 76).
(ii) National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Bill [B
30B - 2003] (National Council of Provinces - sec 76).
The Bills have been referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Environmental Affairs and Tourism of the National Assembly.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Speaker and Chairperson:
Report of the Auditor-General on Performance Audits completed during
the 2001-2002 financial year [RP 156-2003].
- The Minister of Finance:
(a) Report and Financial Statements of Vote No 8 - National Treasury
for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the
Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 135-2003].
(b) Report and Financial Statements of the Financial Services Board
for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the
Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 133-2003].
(c) Government Notice No 1103 published in Government Gazette No
25250 dated 30 July 2003: Appointments and re-appointments of
members to the panel of the Tax Board for the hearing of income
tax appeals in terms of the Income Tax Act, 1962 (Act No 58 of
1962).
(d) Government Notice No 1104 published in Government Gazette No
25286 dated 30 July 2003: Statement of the National and Provincial
Governments' Revenue, Expenditure and Borrowing as at 30 June
2003, in terms of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No
1 of 1999).
(e) Proclamation No R61 published in Government Gazette No 25290
dated 31 July 2003: Commencement of the Insurance Amendment Act,
2003 (Act No 17 of 2003).
- The Acting Minister of Transport:
Report and Financial Statements of the Air Traffic and Navigation
Services Company Ltd for 2002-2003, including the Report of the
Independent Auditors for 2002-2003.
- The Minister of Labour:
(a) Report and Financial Statements of the Financial and Accounting
Services Sector Education and Training Authority (FASSET) for 2002-
2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial
Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 75-2003].
(b) Report and Financial Statements of the Media, Advertising,
Publishing, Printing and Packaging Sector Education and Training
Authority (MAPPP) for 2002-2003.
(c) Report and Financial Statements of the Clothing, Textiles,
Footwear and Leather Sector Education and Training Authority for
2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the
Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 76-2003].
(d) Report and Financial Statements of the Sector Education and
Training Authority for Secondary Agriculture for 2002-2003,
including the Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial
Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 99-2003].
(e) Report and Financial Statements of the Health and Welfare Sector
Education and Training Authority for 2002-2003, including the
Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-
2003 [RP 88-2003].
(f) Report and Financial Statements of the Construction Education
and Training Authority for 2002-2003, including the Report of the
Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 85-
2003].
(g) Report and Financial Statements of the Insurance Sector
Education and Training Authority for 2002-2003, including the
Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-
2003 [RP 79-2003].
(h) Report and Financial Statements of the Local Government, Water
and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority for
2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the
Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 89-2003].
(i) Report and Financial Statements of the Chemical Industries
Education and Training Authority for 2002-2003, including the
Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-
2003 [RP 147-2003].
(j) Report and Financial Statements of the Transport Education and
Training Authority for 2002-2003, including the Report of the
Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 87-
2003].
(k) Report and Financial Statements of the Food and Beverage
Manufacturing Sector Education and Training Authority for 2002-
2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial
Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 95-2003].
(l) Report and Financial Statements of the Services Sector Education
and Training Authority for 2002-2003, including the Report of the
Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 82-
2003].
(m) Report and Financial Statements of the Education, Training and
Development Practices Sector Education and Training Authority for
2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the
Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 121-2003].
(n) Report and Financial Statements of the Bank Sector Education and
Training Authority for 2002-2003, including the Report of the
Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 84-
2003].
(o) Report and Financial Statements of the Energy Sector Education
and Training Authority for 2002-2003, including the Report of the
Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 86-
2003].
(p) Report and Financial Statements of the Information Systems,
Electronics and Telecommunications Technologies Sector Education
and Training Authority for 2002-2003, including the Report of the
Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 96-
2003].
(q) Report and Financial Statements of the Primary Agriculture
Education and Training Authority for 2002-2003, including the
Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-
2003 [RP 109-2003].
- The Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs:
Report and Financial Statements of the Land Bank for the period January
2002 to March 2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the
Financial Statements for the period January 200 to March 2003 [RP 132-
2003].
National Assembly:
- The Speaker:
Report and Financial Statements of the Electoral Commission for 2002-
2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial
Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 67-2003].
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
National Assembly:
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry on the Liquor Bill [B 23 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 76), dated 21 August 2003:
The Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, having considered the subject of the Liquor Bill [B 23 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 76), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 76 Bill, presents the Liquor Bill [B 23B - 2003].
FRIDAY, 29 AUGUST 2003 ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Classification of Bills by Joint Tagging Mechanism:
(1) The Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) on 28 August 2003 in terms of
Joint Rule 160(3), classified the following Bills as section 75
Bills:
(i) Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Amendment
Bill [B 34 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75).
(ii) Skills Development Amendment Bill [B 46 - 2003] (National
Assemby - sec 75).
(iii) Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Bill [B 49 -
2003] (National Assembly - sec 75).
(iv) Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Amendment Bill [B 50 -
2003] (National Assembly - sec 75).
- Introduction of Bills:
(1) The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development:
(i) Superior Courts Bill [B 52 - 2003] (National Assembly -
sec 75) [Explanatory summary of Bill and prior notice of its
introduction published in Government Gazette No 25282 of 30
July 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Justice
and Constitutional Development of the National Assembly, as well
as referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for
classification in terms of Joint Rule 160, on 1 September 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bill may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Speaker and the Chairperson:
(a) Report and Financial Statements of Parliament of the Republic of
South Africa for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-
General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 153-2003].
(b) Report and Financial Statements of the Public Protector of South
Africa, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the
Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 59-2003].
(c) Report and Financial Statements of the Financial and Fiscal
Commission for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-
General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 132-2002].
- The Minister of Finance:
Report and Financial Statements of the Accounting Standards Board for
2002-2003, including the Report of the Independent Auditors for 2002-
2003 [RP 45-2003].
- The Acting Minister of Transport:
(a) Report and Financial Statements of the South African Rail
Commuter Corporation Ltd for 2002-2003, including the Report of
the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP
154-2003].
(b) Agreement between the Government of the Republic of South Africa
and the Government of the Republic of Cuba regarding Merchant
Shipping and Related Maritime Matters, tabled in terms of section
231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(c) Explanatory Memorandum to the Agreement between the Government
of the Republic of South Africa and the Government of the Republic
of Cuba regarding Merchant Shipping and Related Maritime Matters.
- The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism:
(a) Report and Financial Statements of Vote 27 - Environmental
Affairs and Tourism for 2002-2003, including the Report of the
Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 57-
2003].
(b) Report and Financial Statements of the Greater St Lucia Wetlands
Park for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General on
the Financial Statements for 2002-2003.
- The Minister of Communications:
Report and Financial Statements of Sentech for 2002-2003, including the
Report of the Independent Auditors for 2002-2003.
- The Minister of Labour:
(a) Report and Financial Statements of Vote 28 - Labour for 2002-
2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial
Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 72-2003].
(b) Report and Financial Statements of the Mining Qualifications
Authority for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-
General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003.
(c) Report and Financial Statements of the Wholesale and Retail
Sector Education and Training Authority for 2002-2003, including
the Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for
2002-2003. [RP 83-2003].
(d) Report and Financial Statements of the Police, Security, Legal,
Justice and Correctional Services Sector Education and Training
Authority for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-
General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 98-2003].
(e) Report and Financial Statements of the Manufacturing,
Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training
Authority for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-
General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 90-2003].
(f) Report and Financial Statements of the Forest Industries
Education and Training Authority for 2002-2003, including the
Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-
2003 [RP 78-2003].
- The Minister of Minerals and Energy:
(a) Report and Financial Statements of the Council for Mineral
Technology (MINTEK) for 2002-2003, including the Report of the
Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 55-
2003].
(b) Report and Financial Statements of the Council for Geoscience
for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the
Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 46-2003].
(c) Report and Financial Statements of the National Electricity
Regulator for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-
General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 144-2003].
(d) Annual Financial Statements of the Central Energy Fund (CEF)
Group of Companies for 2002-2003, including the Reports of the
Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 155-
2003].
- The Minister in The Presidency:
Report and Financial Statements of Vote 7 - Government Communication
and Information System (GCIS) for 2002-2003, including the Report of
the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 102-
2003].
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
National Assembly:
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development on Notice in terms of Interim Rationalisation of Jurisdiction of High Courts Act, 2001, dated 26 August 2003:
The Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development, having considered the request for approval by Parliament of a Notice which, in terms of section 2(1)(a) of the Interim Rationalisation of Jurisdiction of High Courts Act, 2001 (Act No. 41 of 2001), alters the area of jurisdiction for which a High Court has been established, referred to it, recommends that the House, in terms of section 2(2) of the said Act, approve the Notice, as follows:
CREDA INSERT REPORT
Request to be considered.
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development on the Criminal Procedure Amendment Bill [B 57 - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 75), dated 27 August 2003:
The Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development, having considered the subject of the Criminal Procedure Amendment Bill [B 57 - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 75), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 75 Bill, endorses the classification of the Bill and reports the Bill with amendments [B 57A - 2002].
The Committee wishes to report further, that the Bill aims to reintroduce the leave to appeal and petition procedures in respect of decisions of the lower courts. The provisions dealing with leave to appeal and petition procedures in the High Court are also amended so as to, among others, bring it in line with the procedures contemplated in the lower courts.
The Bill further provides that certain appeals in respect of decisions in both the lower courts and the High Courts relating to certain children may be noted without having to apply for leave to appeal. The Bill also makes provision that certain appeals must be considered only on the written arguments of the parties.
Since all these amendments will have an impact on the existing rules of court, the Rules Board for Courts of Law will have to ensure that all rules in respect of appeals applicable to the Supreme Court of Appeal, the High Courts and the magistrates’ courts are brought in line with the procedures contemplated in the Bill. The provisions of the proposed new section 309B(3)(b) of the Act may, for example, be highlighted. The relevant section allows for an accused person to apply orally for leave to appeal immediately after a magistrate has passed his or her decision or order as a result of a conviction. During its deliberations on the Bill the Committee found that Rule 67 of the Rules of Court in terms of the Magistrates’ Courts Act, 1944 (Act No. 32 of 1944), dealing with appeals under section 309B of the Act, does not make provision for the situation where an accused person applies orally for leave to appeal, as contemplated in section 309B(3)(b) of the Act.
Clause 7 of the Bill therefore places an obligation on the Rules Board for Courts of Law to revise and, where necessary, amend all rules in respect of appeals applicable to the Supreme Court of Appeal, the High Courts and the magistrates’ courts. The Rules Board must, within three months after the date of the commencement of the Act, submit any draft amendment rules to Parliament for approval.
This resolution must immediately be brought to the attention of the Chairperson of the Rules Board for Courts of Law. Report to be considered.
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development on the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Amendment Bill [B 34 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75), dated 27 August 2003:
The Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development, having considered the subject of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Amendment Bill [B 34 - 2003] (National Assembly
- sec 75), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 75 Bill, endorses the classification of the Bill and reports the Bill with amendments [B 34A - 2003].
The Committee wishes to report further, as follows:
(1) During the Committee’s deliberations on the Bill it was brought to the Committee’s attention that the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission contains an erroneous classification of a victim who is alive, as deceased.
(2) In light of the above, the Committee recommends that the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development be requested to correct the matter administratively, if possible, and if not, then to request him to direct his Department to approach a High Court with an application to correct the erroneous classification as identified above. As the person concerned is blameless, it is proposed that the cost incurred in respect of the application to a High Court be borne by the Department. The Committee further wishes to recommend that, if at a later stage any further substantial errors are identified in the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, such errors should, as far as possible, be corrected through the judicial process.
Report to be considered.
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Minerals and Energy on the Petroleum Products Amendment Bill [B 25 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75), dated 28 August 2003:
The Portfolio Committee on Minerals and Energy, having considered the subject of the Petroleum Products Amendment Bill [B 25 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 75 Bill, presents the Petroleum Products Amendment Bill [B 25B - 2003].
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Health on the National Health Bill [B 32 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 76), dated 28 August 2003: The Portfolio Committee on Health, having considered the subject of the National Health Bill [B 32 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 76), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 76 Bill, reports the Bill with amendments [B 32A - 2003].
MONDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Introduction of Bills:
(1) The Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs:
(i) Agricultural Produce Agents Amendment Bill [B 53 - 2003]
(National Assembly - sec 75) [Explanatory summary of Bill and
prior notice of its introduction published in Government
Gazette No 25311 of 5 August 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on
Agriculture and Land Affairs of the National Assembly, as well as
referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification
in terms of Joint Rule 160, on 2 September 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bill may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
National Assembly:
- The Speaker:
The following papers have been tabled and are now referred to the
relevant committees as mentioned below:
(1) The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Finance:
(a) Government Notice No R1011 published in Government Gazette
No 25192 dated 18 July 2003: Exchange Control Regulations:
Cancellation and appointment of an authorised dealer in
foreign exchange: ING Bank N.V. South Africa Branch, in terms
of the Currency and Exchanges Act, 1933 (Act No 9 of 1933).
(b) Government Notice No 60 published in Government Gazette No
25217 dated 25 July 2003: Regulations for Accounting Standards
Board in terms of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act
No 1 of 1999).
(2) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Trade and Industry:
Community Public Partnership Programme: Annual Review for 2002-
2003.
(3) The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Minerals and Energy:
(a) Agreement between the Government of the Republic of South
Africa and the Government of the Republic of Namibia
concerning Natural Gas Trade, tabled in terms of section
231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(b) Explanatory Memorandum to the Agreement between the
Government of the Republic of South Africa and the Government
of the Republic of Namibia concerning Natural Gas Trade.
(4) The following paper is referred to the Joint Committee on Ethics
and Members' Interests:
Special Report No 23 of the Public Protector: Investigation of a
complaint regarding the alleged failure of Mr M P Lekota, Minister
of Defence, to comply with certain provisions of the Executive
Members' Ethics Act, 1998 and the Executive Code.
(5) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Transport:
South African National Roads Agency - Budget Schedules for 2003-
2004.
(6) The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. The Report of the Auditor-
General is referred to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts
for consideration and report:
(a) Report and Financial Statements of the William Humphreys
Art Gallery for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-
General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003.
(b) Report and Financial Statements of The Playhouse Company
for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Independent
Auditors for 2002-2003.
(7) The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
Trade and Industry. The Report of the Independent Auditors is
referred to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts for
consideration and report:
Report and Financial Statements of the South African National
Accreditation System for 2002-2003, including the Report of the
Independent Auditors for 2002-2003.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces: Papers:
- The Minister of Defence:
(a) Agreement between the Government of the Republic of South Africa
and the Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil on
Cooperation in Defence Related Matters, tabled in terms of section
231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(b) Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the
Republic of South Africa as represented by the Department of
Defence and The Federal Ministry of Defence of the Federal
Republic of Germany on The Joint Execution of Helicopter Cross
Deck Operations within the Scope of Maritime Cooperation, tabled
in terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(c) Agreement between the Government of the Republic of South Africa
as represented by the Department of Defence and The Government of
the Federal Republic of Germany as represented by the Federal
Ministry of Defence on The Provision of Equipment Aid, tabled in
terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(d) Agreement between the Government of the Republic of South Africa
as represented by the Department of Defence and The Government of
the Federal Republic of Germany as represented by the Federal
Ministry of Defence on The Secondment of A Group of Advisers to
the Republic of South Africa, tabled in terms of section 231(3) of
the Constitution, 1996.
(e) Specific Arrangement between the Department of Defence of the
Republic of South Africa and the Federal Ministry of Defence of
the Federal Republic of Germany concerning The Training of Members
of the Armed Forces of the Republic of South Africa at Bundeswehr
Facilities as Part of Military Training Assistance, tabled in
terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(f) Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the
Republic of South Africa as represented by the Armaments
Corporation of South Africa Ltd and the Federal Ministry of
Defence of the Federal Republic of Germany concerning The Sirius
System, tabled in terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution,
1996.
(g) Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the
Republic of South Africa and the Government of the State of Kuwait
concerning Defence Cooperation, tabled in terms of section 231(3)
of the Constitution, 1996.
(h) Military Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the
Republic of South Africa and the Government of the Sultanate of
Oman, tabled in terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(i) Agreement between the Government of the State of Qatar and the
Government of the Republic of South Africa concerning Cooperation
in the Military Field, tabled in terms of section 231(3) of the
Constitution, 1996.
(j) Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the
Republic of South Africa and the Government of Romania concerning
Defence Cooperation, tabled in terms of section 231(3) of the
Constitution, 1996.
(k) Implementing Arrangement between the South African Air Force and
the Swedish Armed Forces concerning Peacetime Cooperation between
the Respective Air Forces, tabled in terms of section 231(3) of
the Constitution, 1996.
(l) Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the
Republic of South Africa and the Government of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning the Attachment of
South African Air Force Flying Instructors to the Royal Air Force,
tabled in terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(m) Renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding between the
Government of the Republic of South Africa and the Government of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
concerning Defence Cooperation, tabled in terms of section 231(3)
of the Constitution, 1996.
(n) Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government
of the Republic of South Africa concerning Defence Cooperation,
tabled in terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(o) Agreement between the Government of the Republic of South Africa
and the Government of the Republic of Zambia concerning Defence
Cooperation, tabled in terms of section 231(3) of the
Constitution, 1996.
(p) Specific Arrangement between the Government of the Republic of
South Africa and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland on The Funding of the South African
Protection Support Detachment in Support of the Implementation of
the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement for Burundi, tabled
in terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(q) Technical Arrangement between Armscor and General Secretariat of
Italian Defence and National Directorate of Armaments for the
Provision of Government Quality Assurance Services, tabled in
terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(r) Arrangement between the Netherlands' Minister of Foreign Affairs
and the Department of Defence of the Republic of South Africa,
tabled in terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(s) Arrangement between the South African Department of Defence and
the Netherlands' Minister of Foreign Affairs, tabled in terms of
section 231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(t) Technical Arrangement between the Department of Defence of the
Republic of South Africa as represented by the Secretary for
Defence and the Secretariat General of Defence and National
Armaments Directorate of the Italian Republic concerning
Cooperation in the field of Command, Control, Communication and
Computers, Intelligence, Infrastructure, Information,
Reconnaissance and Surveillance (CIRS), tabled in terms of section
231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
- The Minister of Trade and Industry:
Report and Financial Statements of the Export Credit Insurance
Corporation of South Africa Ltd for 2002-2003, including the Report of
the Independent Auditors.
- The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development:
Amended Regulations regarding the Promotion of Access to Information
Act, 2000 (Act No 2 of 2000), submitted in terms of section 92(2) of
the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000.
- The Minister of Communications:
(a) Report and Financial Statements of Vote No 26 - Department of
Communications for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-
General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003.
(b) Report and Financial Statements of the South African
Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) for 2002-2003, including the
Report of the Independent Auditors for 2002-2003.
- The Minister of Sport and Recreation:
Report and Financial Statements of the South African Sport Commission
for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the
Financial Statements for 2002-2003.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
National Assembly:
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Arts, Culture, Science and Technology on the Natural Scientific Professions Bill [B 56B - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 75), dated 1 September 2003:
The Portfolio Committee on Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, having considered the Natural Scientific Professions Bill [B 56B - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 75) and a proposed amendment of the National Council of Provinces (Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports, 7 August 2003, p 793), referred to the Committee, reports the Bill with an amendment [B 56C - 2002].
Report to be considered.
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Labour on the Unemployment Insurance Amendment Bill [B 35 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75), dated 1 September 2003:
The Portfolio Committee on Labour, having considered the subject of the Unemployment Insurance Amendment Bill [B 35 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 75 Bill, reports the Bill without amendment.
CREDA INSERT REPORTS
TUESDAY, 2 SEPTEMBER 2003
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Bills passed by Houses - to be submitted to President for assent:
(1) Bills passed by National Assembly on 2 September 2003:
(i) Mining Titles Registration Amendment Bill [B 24D - 2003]
(National Assembly - sec 75).
(ii) Natural Scientific Professions Bill [B 56D - 2002]
(National Assembly - sec 75).
(2) Bills passed by National Council of Provinces on 2 September
2003:
(i) National Small Business Amendment Bill [B 20B - 2003]
(National Assembly - sec 75).
(ii) National Road Traffic Amendment Bill [B 31B - 2003]
(National Assembly - sec 76).
- Introduction of Bills:
(1) The Minister of Home Affairs:
(i) Electoral Laws Amendment Bill [B 54 - 2003] (National
Assembly - sec 75) [Explanatory summary of Bill and prior
notice of its introduction published in Government Gazette No
25422 of 1 September 2003.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Home
Affairs of the National Assembly, as well as referral to the Joint
Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of Joint Rule
160, on 3 September 2003.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
the Bill may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
within three parliamentary working days.
- Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159:
(1) The Minister of Home Affairs on 1 September 2003 submitted the
following Bills:
(i) Electoral Amendment Bill, 2003.
(ii) Films and Publications Amendment Bill, 2003.
(iii) South African Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2003.
Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs and the Select
Committee on Social Services. National Assembly:
- Membership of Committees:
(1) The following changes have been made to the membership of Joint
Committees, viz:
Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women:
Appointed: Meruti, V.
(2) The following changes have been made to the membership of
Standing Committees, viz:
Public Accounts:
Appointed: Blanché, J P I; Meruti, V.
(3) The following changes have been made to the membership of
Portfolio Committees, viz:
Agriculture and Land Affairs:
Appointed: Daniels N (Alt).
Communications:
Appointed: Mthethwa, E N (Alt); Sithole, D J (Alt); Sithole, P;
Magazi, M N (Alt).
Defence:
Appointed: Daniels, N.
Education:
Appointed: Daniels N (Alt).
Home Affairs:
Appointed: Sithole, P (Alt).
Housing:
Appointed: Sithole, P (Alt).
Justice and Constitutional Development:
Appointed: Meruti, V.
(4) Mr V G Smith has been elected as Chairperson of the Ad Hoc
Committee on Public Auditing Function with effect from 2 September
2003.
- Messages from National Council of Provinces to National Assembly in respect of Bills passed by Council and transmitted to Assembly:
(1) Message from National Council of Provinces to National Assembly:
Bills, subject to proposed amendments, passed by Council on 2
September 2003 and transmitted for consideration of Council's
proposed amendments:
(i) Public Protector Amendment Bill [B 6B - 2003] (National
Assembly - sec 75) (for proposed amendments, see
Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports, 27 August
2003, p 852).
(ii) Judicial Officers (Amendment of Conditions of Service)
Bill [B 33 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75) (for
proposed amendments, see Announcements, Tablings and
Committee Reports, 27 August 2003, p 853).
The Bills have been referred to the Portfolio Committee on Justice
and Constitutional Development of the National Assembly for a
report on the amendments proposed by the Council.
TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Minister of Education:
Report and Financial Statements of Umalusi Council for Quality
Assurance in General and Further Education and Training for 2002-2003,
including the Report of the Independent Auditors for 2002-2003.
- The Minister of Minerals and Energy:
(a) Report and Financial Statements of Vote No 31 - Department of
Minerals and Energy for 2002-2003, including the Report of the
Auditor-General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 113-
2003].
(b) Report and Financial Statements of the South African Nuclear
Energy Corporation Limited (NECSA) for 2002-2003, including the
Report of the Independent Auditors for 2002-2003.
(c) Report and Financial Statements of the National Nuclear
Regulator for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-
General on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 36-2003].
(d) Group Annual Financial Statements of the Petroleum Oil and Gas
Corporation of South Africa (Pty) Ltd (PetroSA) for 2002-2003,
including the Reports of the Auditor-General on the Financial
Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 158-2003].
- The Minister of Sport and Recreation:
Report and Financial Statements of the South African Institute for Drug-
Free Sport for 2002-2003, including the Report of the Auditor-General
on the Financial Statements for 2002-2003 [RP 124-2003].
National Assembly:
- The Speaker:
Letter dated 5 August 2003 from the Minister of Health to the Speaker,
tabled in terms of section 65(2)(a) of the Public Finance Management
Act, 1999 (Act No 1 of 1999), explaining the delay in the tabling of
the Annual Reports and Financial Statements for the National Health
Laboratory Services for 2001-2002 and 2002-2003.
Dear Madam Speaker
National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS): Annual Reports 2001-2002
and 2002-2003.
The purpose of this letter is to advise you that the National Health
Laboratory Services will not be able to comply with the PFMA
Regulations in respect of the submission of the abovementioned Annual
Reports to Parliament.
The National Health Laboratory Services was established as a public
entity on 1 October 2001 and used the budget of the South African
Institute for Medical Research (SAIMR) for the first eighteen months of
its existence.
There was a delay in the appointment of external auditors, but finally
PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Gobodo have been appointed and commenced the
audit for the 18-month period. This has been done with the involvement
of the office of the Auditor-General.
The National Health Laboratory Services will therefore not be in a
position to present an annual report for 2001/02, but expects to submit
one report for the 18-month period from 1 October 2001 to 31 March
2003. The auditors have advised that they will only be able to present
the draft audit report to the National Health Laboratory Services on
the 15 September 2003. There is insufficient time for the National
Health Laboratory to submit an Annual Report to the Minister and
Parliament by the 30 September 2003.
The Annual Report shall be submitted as soon as it becomes available.
Kindly bring this to the attention of the Secretary to Parliament.
Kind regards
Dr M E Tshabalala-Msimang, MP
Minister
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
National Assembly:
CREDA INSERT COMMITEE REPORT - FROM PAGE 903 - 909