Science and Technology Laws Amendment Bill [B 5 B-2011]: deliberations and finalisation

Meeting report

Science and Technology Laws Amendment Bill [Bill 5 B -2011]
The Chairperson noted that in terms of the agenda for the day the Committee would be finalising and deliberating on the Science and Technology Laws Amendment Bill. Last week the Department of Science and Technology (DST) briefed the Committee on the Bill, which basically sought to amend a number of different Acts relating to the public entities now falling under the Minister and the Department as opposed to the former Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. She asked Members to engage with the Bill.

Ms N Rasmeni (ANC, North West) noted that since the amendments were based on technical corrections, some of the issues they’ve wanted to raise in that area had already been raised last week. And they’ve looked through the Bill after they’ve departed with the department and hadn’t found anything of critical importance that could be raised.

The Chairperson stated that if there was nothing that Members wanted to raise from the Bill they should rather check corrections page by page before adopting it.

Ms Boroto (ANC, Mpumalanga) noted that she wanted to check with State Law Advisor if what they were saying in terms of deliberating and finalising of the Bill was legally correct because it might happen that through their ignorance they were not doing what was expected of them.

Mr Sisa Makhabeni, State Law Advisor, Office of the Chief State Law Adviser noted that they’ve assisted with the drafting of the Bill and assisted in the National Assembly (NA) with the amendments that were proposed and agreed to by the Committee. Therefore they were satisfied what was on the Bill was indeed in line with the Constitution and drafting practice.

Ms Boroto advised that the Bill was correct and the Committee should adopt it.

The Chairperson asked each Member from different Provinces to indicate their vote because each Province was allowed one vote. She noted that all 6 Provinces that were represented in the meeting agreed and voted for the Bill. Therefore the report of the Select Committee read that having considered the subject of Science and Technology Laws Amendment Bill {B 5 B-2011] referred to it and classified by the joint taking mechanism as a Section 75 Bill reported that it had agreed to the Bill without proposed amendments.

She thanked Members for their contribution and the delegations from the DST and the Office of the Chief State Law Adviser.

The meeting was adjourned.