The Sixth Parliament passed 124 Bills. This was better than the Fifth Parliament, where 112 bills were passed.
When the Fifth Parliament ended, there were 39 unfinished bills. According to National Assembly rule 333 (2), these Bills lapsed automatically when Parliament was dissolved on 7 May 2019. The Sixth Parliament revived 30 of these.
The Sixth Parliament's Bill adoption or efficiency rate is 77%, an uptick from the Fifth Parliament’s 65%, but both fall short of the Fourth Parliament’s 87% rate. This refers to the percentage of introduced Bills that were successfully adopted by Parliament—to calculate this percentage, we divide the total number of Bills adopted in the Sixth Parliament by the total number of Bills introduced in the same period.
The Sixth Parliament passed 124 Bills. This was better than the Fifth Parliament, where 112 bills were passed.
It is interesting to observe that most Bills were introduced in 2023, the year before the national election. This underscores a point made by PMG in its legislative performance of Parliament study which observed that pre-election years are known to be busy for the introduction of legislation by government.
Of the 162 Bills tabled in the Sixth Parliament, 86% were introduced by the Executive, and the remainder by individual Members of Parliament (13%) and Committees (1%). Notably, there has been a drop in the number of committee bills introduced in the Sixth Parliament compared to the 5% (of total bills introduced) in the Fifth Parliament.
As of 29 April, 48 bills were still before Parliament. In terms of Parliament's Rules, business before the legislature lapses when the term of that Parliament ends or when Parliament is dissolved. When a bill or another matter lapses, the new Assembly can revive it by way of a motion in the House. Such motions sometimes state that the matter be revived "from the stage it reached on the last sitting day of the House (of the previous House)...."
Currently, 28 Bills passed by the Sixth Parliament are awaiting the President’s signature.
23 Private Member Bills were introduced in the Sixth Parliament, 70% of them by the DA. This is a noticeable increase from the 9 Private Members Bill in the Fifth Parliament.
| YEAR INTRODUCED | TITLE AND NUMBER | MEMBER | STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Remote Gambling Bill (B11-2024) | Mr D Macpherson (DA) | Under consideration |
| 2024 | Local Government: Municipal Structures Second Amendment Bill (B10-2024) | Ms S Gwarube (DA) | Under consideration |
| 2024 | Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill (B9-2024) | Ms S Gwarube (DA) | Under consideration |
| 2023 | Constitution Twentieth Amendment Bill (B20-2023) | Adv G Breytenbach (DA) | Under consideration |
| 2023 | Children's Amendment Bill (B19-2023) | Ms B Masango (DA) | Under consideration |
| 2023 | Constitution Nineteenth Amendment Bill (B17-2023) | Ms S Gwarube (DA) | Under consideration |
| 2023 | Electoral Commission Amendment Bill (B15-2023) | Dr A Lotriet (DA) | Under consideration |
| 2023 | Responsible Spending Bill (B9-2023) | Dr D George (DA) | Under consideration |
| 2023 | Remuneration of Public Office Bearers Amendment Bill (B8-2023) | Dr L Schreiber (DA) | Under consideration |
| 2023 | Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Amendment Bill (B6-2023) | Ms E Powell (DA) | Under consideration |
| 2022 | Divorce Amendment Bill (B32-2022) | Mr G Hendricks (Al- Jama-ah) | Lapsed |
| 2022 | Registration of Muslim Marriages Bill (B30-2022) | Mr G Hendricks (Al- Jama-ah) | Withdrawn |
| 2022 | Relocation of the Seat of Parliament Bill (B29-2022) | Mr J Malema (EFF) | Withdrawn |
| 2022 | Maintenance Amendment Bill (B17-2022) | Mr G Hendricks (Al- Jama-ah) | Under consideration |
| 2021 | Public Administration Laws General Amendment Bill (B16-2021) | Dr L Schreiber (DA) | Rejected |
| 2021 | Ease of Doing Business Bill (B6-2021) | Mr H Kruger (DA) | Lapsed |
| 2021 | Disaster Management Amendment Bill (B2-2021) | Dr P Groenewald (FF+) | Rejected |
| 2021 | Animals Protection Amendment Bill (B1-2021) | Mr S Swarts (ACDP) | Rejected |
| 2020 | Electoral Laws Second Amendment Bill (B34-2020) | Mr M Lekota (COPE) | Lapsed |
| 2020 | Pension Funds Amendment Bill (B30-2020) | Dr D George (DA) | Lapsed |
| 2020 | Public Finance Management Amendment Bill (B13-2020) | Mr G Cachalia (DA) | Rejected |
| 2020 | Fiscal Responsibility Bill (B5-2020) | Mr G Hill-Lewis (DA) | Lapsed |
| 2019 | Independent Electricity Management Operator Bill (B14-2019) | Ms N Mazzone (DA) | Rejected |
In the Sixth Parliament, the Minister of Finance introduced the most number of Bills: 60 from post-election 2019 to date. This is followed by the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services who introduced 24 Bills in the Sixth Parliament. The pie chart below outlines the spread of Bill types introduced in the Sixth Parliament:
- Section 75: Bills not affecting provinces - 63
- Section 76: Bills affecting provinces - 56
- Section 77: Money Bills - 38
- Section 74: constitutional amendments - 4
Not all bills are created equal: some are only a few pages long, while others run to hundreds of pages with lots of clauses and technicalities (causing many hours of debate and deliberations). Some of the complex and technical legislation processed in the Sixth Parliament include:
- National Minimum Wage
- National Health Insurance
- Cannabis for Private Purposes
- Domestic Violence
- Electoral Reform
- Expropriation
- Climate Change
- Public Procurement
- BELA
- Copyright
- Performers’ Protection
As with other statistics pieces in this review, simply counting bills introduced and bills passed does not give a full picture of legislative performance. Emphasis is on the quality of legislation passed.