Committee Annual Report 2002: adoption; Subcommittee Reports: consideration; Minister Ngubane on his 2002 submission: briefing

CONSTITUTIONAL REVIEW COMMITTEE
21 November 2003
COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2002: ADOPTION
SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS: CONSIDERATION
MINISTER NGUBANE ON HIS 2002 SUBMISSION: BRIEFING

Chairperson: Adv SP Holomisa

Documents handed out:
None

SUMMARY
This meeting was the second attempt to adopt the Committee's Annual Report for 2002. Once again this could not be done as there was not a quorum, and the meeting was postponed. The Chair apologised to the Minister that it would not be worth his while to brief such a small, informal meeting. The attendance issue would be taken up seriously with the Speaker, the Chief Whips Forum and the Leader of Government Business.

MINUTES

The Chairperson explained that none of the reports could be adopted because of a lack of quorum. This situation had been a chronic problem ever since the Committee had been constituted. He suggested that the meeting be postponed.

Mr B Martins (ANC) agreed as he felt it was unreasonable to expect the Minister to brief an informal meeting of an undefined status. He stressed that the matter be taken up seriously with the Speaker and the Chief Whips forum. The matter should be tabled with the Leader of Government Business, the Deputy President.

Various Members felt that although the programme kept Members very busy at this time of the term, the size of the Review Committee needed to be reduced and that specific members should have this Committee as their priority.

The Minister had planned to discuss his 2002 submissions. He briefly commented that the state of libraries were a serious issue that impacted on the culture of reading in the country. Province had requested more funds from national in order to develop library functions. The Ministry wanted it to be a shared competence between provinces and Local Government. He requested that the Committee impress upon the Leader of Government Business that funds had to be given to provinces to support local government functions.

The Chairperson apologised to the Minister and assured him that the matter would be taken up seriously.

The meeting was adjourned.