Private Members' Legislative proposals and Special Petitions Committee: Outstanding Matters

Meeting report

Outstanding Matters
The Chairperson announced that there had been a reshuffling of Members; Mr Ainslie, Ms Mocumi and Mr Fihla (all ANC) had been replaced by Ms F Khumalo (ANC). The required quorum was therefore reduced to six.

The issue of the memorandum to initiate the Petitions Bill had not yet been finalised. If it was not considered by the following Friday the memorandum would be resubmitted to the Office of the Speaker to be placed on the Announcements, Tablings and Committees (ATC) in 2011.

On the special petition of Mr Munasur, after research it was considered that it may not be procedurally correct that it be dealt with by this Committee, and the matter would be kept on hold until determination of the structures that should be taken.

The Committee was still frustrated by lack of cooperation of sister bodies and departments that had a bearing on the day-to-day responsibilities of the Committee. The hearing scheduled for 23 and 24 November on Mr Munasur’s petition would not take place, as procedures were not followed.

The focus for the following week would be on the workshop and the meeting with the delegation from Vietnam on 30 November.

Ms A Dreyer (DA) mentioned that she would not be able to attend both the workshop and the meeting with the Vietnamese delegation, as her party was heavily involved in constituency work at that time.

The Chairperson said that the workshop was still in a committee week and the House Chairperson had agreed that that week should be dedicated to the workshop.

Mr P Pretorius (DA) concurred with Ms Dreyer’s sentiments and suggested that the Committee Secretary check in advance who would be attending as it would be difficult to run a workshop with too few Members.

Ms J Sosibo (ANC) requested that Ms Dreyer try to attend the workshop as it fell in a committee week.

Mr Pretorius asked for clarification on the meeting with the Vietnamese.

Ms Barbara Loots, Committee Secretary, clarified that it was a delegation of six or seven members of the Vietnam Parliament that served on a committee very similar to the Private Members Legislative Proposals and Special Petitions, the idea being to learn from each other. An interpreter would be available.

Mr Pretorius said he would be especially interested in how they dealt with special petitions.

The committee considered the draft training programme for the workshop. There were no comments from Members.

The Chairperson said the morning would be led by external people, Professor du Plessis, and also someone from the Office of the Speaker. The afternoon would deal with strategic planning.

Minutes of Committee Meeting held on 27 October 2010
Minutes of Committee Meeting held on 27 October 2010 were approved and adopted with technical amendments.

In conclusion, the Chairperson said this had been the last meeting of the Committee for 2010. He thanked Members for their contribution to the work of the Committee. The Committee had been through a learning curve and would be better equipped to do what Parliament expected of it in 2011.

The Committee would meet again at the workshop.

The meeting was adjourned.