Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill: deliberations (postponed)

Meeting report

The Chairperson sought guidance on whether the meeting should proceed. She noted that the most of the Members were not available: all DA members had submitted apologies and other Members were absent for a variety of reasons including family bereavement, ill health, injury and other commitments.

The Chairperson stated that only three members, including herself were present at the meeting

The Chairperson further noted that this is a Private Members’ Bill and that the Committee is working together with the Department but if there is any possibility of an A list the parliamentary legal advisors must take the lead and work with Department because of the separation of powers.

She indicated that the parliamentary legal advisor (Mr Prince) was not present and he had indicated this the previous week. The Committee had requested Parliament’s Legal Unit to allocate someone to assist the Committee while Mr Prince was not present today

The Committee would wait for a few minutes to see if any other Members will attend.

After a few minutes, the Chairperson declared the meeting officially open and welcomed officials from the Department,

She indicated that the Committee was supposed to meet today to proceed with the amendments to the Bill clause-by-clause. In light of the fact that the majority of Members were absent, Mr Prince was not present due to other commitments and the Legal Unit of Parliament had indicate that all the legal advisors were busy and there is no one that can be assigned to the Committee, the meeting will be deferred to the following week.

She apologised to the Department. The Committee had to follow the House rules otherwise what will be done today will be null and void.

She also apologised to the other Members present.

She declared the meeting officially closed.

The meeting was adjourned.