Joint Rules: Election of Chairperson; Establishment of Sub-committee on Rules

Meeting report

The Committee met to establish a subcommittee- that would review the NCOP rules- as well to appoint its chairperson. The Chairperson read out NCOP rule 118 (f) which stated that the NCOP Rules Committee may appoint the subcommittee to assist it with the performance of any of its functions or exercise of any of its powers. He also recited rule 121 (b) which made provision for a list of subcommittees for the Rules Committee- this included the Subcommittee on Review of the Councils Rules.

Establishment of the Subcommittee
The following names were proposed to serve on Subcommittee on Rules

1, Mr M Jacobs (ANC; Free State)
2. Ms L Mabija (ANC; Limpopo)
3. Ms M Boroto (ANC; Mpumalanga)
4. Mr I Gunda (ID; Northern Cape)
5. Mr A Watson (DA; Mpumalanga)

Mr Watson asked why the IFP had not been included on the list of those who would be serving on the Committee.

The Chairperson referred Mr Watson to rule 126 which prescribed how a subcommittee should be constituted. Rule 126 stated that the subcommittee must comprise of 3 members of the ruling party and two other members, each of whom belong to a different minority party.

The Committee unanimously agreed to the establishment of the subcommittee.

Appointment of the Chairperson
The Chairperson read rule 127, which stipulated that a chairperson must be appointed from onr of the members of the subcommittee.

The Committee unanimously agreed.

The Chairperson indicated that initially, whenever the NCOP had a problem with a specific rule, that rule would be immediately amended. He then requested the staff to go to all the NCOP rules to ascertain whether they were consistent with the current situation. Those rules seemed to be redundant and should either be amended or thrown away. He said an amended draft rules document had been compiled and was ready. It would be referred to the Subcommittee on Rules to compare with the current NCOP rules last amended in 2008

The meeting was adjourned.